Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (electric book reader TXT) π

Description
Don Quixote is a novel that doesnβt need much introduction. Not only is it widely considered the greatest Spanish literary work of all time, one of the greatest literary works in history, and a cornerstone of the Western literary canon, itβs also considered one of the firstβif not the firstβmodern novels.
This Standard Ebooks edition is believed to be the first ebook edition of Don Quixote to feature a full transcription of translator John Ormsbyβs nearly 1,000 footnotes. Ormsby as an annotator deftly explains obscure passages, gives background on the life and times of 1600s Spain, references decisions from other contemporary translators, and doesnβt hold back from sharing his views on the geniusβand flawsβof Cervantesβ greatest work.
The story is of the eponymous Don Quixote, a country noble who, in his old age, reads too many chivalric romances and goes mad. After convincing his grubby servant, Sancho Panza, to join him as his squire, he embarks on an absurd and comic quest to do good and right wrongs.
Today Don Quixoteβs two volumes are published as a single work, but their publication came ten years apart. Cervantes saw great success with the publication of his first volume, and appeared to have little desire to write a second volume until a different author wrote a spurious, inferior sequel. This kicked Cervantes into gear and he wrote volume two, a more serious and philosophical volume than the largely comic first volume.
Despite being written in 1605 and translated in 1885, Don Quixote contains a surprising amount of slapstick laughsβeven for the modern readerβand narrative devices still seen in todayβs fiction, including meta-narratives, frame narratives, and metafiction. Many scenes (like Quixoteβs attack on the windmills) and characters (like Sancho Panza and Lothario) are so famous that theyβre ingrained in our collective culture.
Read free book Β«Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (electric book reader TXT) πΒ» - read online or download for free at americanlibrarybooks.com
- Author: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Read book online Β«Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (electric book reader TXT) πΒ». Author - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Carrasco, seeing how distressed and overcome she was, said to her, βWhat is this, mistress housekeeper? What has happened to you? One would think you heartbroken.β
βNothing, SeΓ±or Samson,β said she, βonly that my master is breaking out, plainly breaking out.β
βWhereabouts is he breaking out, seΓ±ora?β asked Samson; βhas any part of his body burst?β
βHe is only breaking out at the door of his madness,β she replied; βI mean, dear seΓ±or bachelor, that he is going to break out again (and this will be the third time) to hunt all over the world for what he calls ventures, though I canβt make out why he gives them that name.497 The first time he was brought back to us slung across the back of an ass, and belaboured all over; and the second time he came in an oxcart, shut up in a cage, in which he persuaded himself he was enchanted, and the poor creature was in such a state that the mother that bore him would not have known him; lean, yellow, with his eyes sunk deep in the cells of his skull; so that to bring him round again, ever so little, cost me more than six hundred eggs, as God knows, and all the world, and my hens too, that wonβt let me tell a lie.β
βThat I can well believe,β replied the bachelor, βfor they are so good and so fat, and so well-bred, that they would not say one thing for another, though they were to burst for it. In short then, mistress housekeeper, that is all, and there is nothing the matter, except what it is feared Don Quixote may do?β
βNo, seΓ±or,β said she.
βWell then,β returned the bachelor, βdonβt be uneasy, but go home in peace; get me ready something hot for breakfast, and while you are on the way say the prayer of Santa Apollonia, that is if you know it; for I will come presently and you will see miracles.β
βWoe is me,β cried the housekeeper, βis it the prayer of Santa Apollonia you would have me say? That would do if it was the toothache my master had; but it is in the brains, what he has got.β498
βI know what I am saying, mistress housekeeper; go, and donβt set yourself to argue with me, for you know I am a bachelor of Salamanca, and one canβt be more of a bachelor than that,β replied Carrasco; and with this the housekeeper retired, and the bachelor went to look for the curate, and arrange with him what will be told in its proper place.
While Don Quixote and Sancho were shut up together, they had a discussion which the history records with great precision and scrupulous exactness. Sancho said to his master, βSeΓ±or, I have educed my wife to let me go with your worship wherever you choose to take me.β
βInduced, you should say, Sancho,β said Don Quixote; βnot educed.β
βOnce or twice, as well as I remember,β replied Sancho, βI have begged of your worship not to mend my words, if so be as you understand what I mean by them; and if you donβt understand them to say βSancho,β or βdevil,β βI donβt understand thee;β and if I donβt make my meaning plain, then you may correct me, for I am so focileβ ββ
βI donβt understand thee, Sancho,β said Don Quixote at once; βfor I know not what βI am so focileβ means.β
βββSo focileβ means I am so much that way,β replied Sancho.
βI understand thee still less now,β said Don Quixote.
βWell, if you canβt understand me,β said Sancho, βI donβt know how to put it; I know no more, God help me.β
βOh, now I have hit it,β said Don Quixote; βthou wouldst say thou art so docile, tractable, and gentle that thou wilt take what I say to thee, and submit to what I teach thee.β
βI would bet,β said Sancho, βthat from the very first you understood me, and knew what I meant, but you wanted to put me out that you might hear me make another couple of dozen blunders.β
βMay be so,β replied Don Quixote; βbut to come to the point, what does Teresa say?β
βTeresa says,β replied Sancho, βthat I should make sure with your worship, and βlet papers speak and beards be still,β499 for βhe who binds does not wrangle,β500 since one βtakeβ is better than two βIβll give theeβs;β501 and I say a womanβs advice is no great thing, and he who wonβt take it is a fool.β502
βAnd so say I,β said Don Quixote; βcontinue, Sancho my friend; go on; you talk pearls today.β
βThe fact is,β continued Sancho, βthat, as your worship knows better than I do, we are all of us liable to death, and today we are, and tomorrow we are not, and the lamb goes as soon as the sheep,503 and nobody can promise himself more hours of life in this world than God may be pleased to give him; for death is deaf, and when it comes to knock at our lifeβs door, it is always urgent, and neither prayers, nor struggles, nor sceptres, nor mitres, can keep it back, as common talk and report say, and as they tell us from the pulpits every day.β
βAll that is very true,β said Don Quixote; βbut I cannot make out what thou art driving at.β
βWhat I am driving at,β said Sancho, βis that your worship settle some fixed wages for me, to be paid monthly while I am in your service, and that the same be paid me out of your estate; for I donβt care to stand on rewards which either come late,
Comments (0)