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
Don Quixote on hearing this felt his throat, and turning to the duke he said, βBy God, seΓ±or, Dulcinea says true, I have my soul stuck here in my throat like the nut of a crossbow.β741
βWhat say you to this, Sancho?β said the duchess.
βI say, seΓ±ora,β returned Sancho, βwhat I said before; as for the lashes, abernuncio!β
βAbrenuncio, you should say, Sancho, and not as you do,β said the duke.
βLet me alone, your highness,β said Sancho. βIβm not in a humour now to look into niceties or a letter more or less, for these lashes that are to be given me, or Iβm to give myself, have so upset me, that I donβt know what Iβm saying or doing. But Iβd like to know of this lady, my lady Dulcinea del Toboso, where she learned this way she has of asking favours. She comes to ask me to score my flesh with lashes, and she calls me soul of a pitcher, and great untamed brute, and a string of foul names that the devil is welcome to. Is my flesh brass? or is it anything to me whether she is enchanted or not? Does she bring with her a basket of fair linen, shirts, kerchiefs, socksβ βnot that wear anyβ βto coax me? No, nothing but one piece of abuse after another, though she knows the proverb they have here that βan ass loaded with gold goes lightly up a mountain,β and that βgifts break rocks,β and βpraying to God and plying the hammer,β and that βone βtakeβ is better than two βIβll give theeβs.βββ742 Then thereβs my master, who ought to stroke me down and pet me to make me turn wool and carded cotton; he says if he gets hold of me heβll tie me naked to a tree and double the tale of lashes on me. These tenderhearted gentry should consider that itβs not merely a squire, but a governor they are asking to whip himself; just as if it was βdrink with cherries.β743 Let them learn, plague take them, the right way to ask, and beg, and behave themselves; for all times are not alike,744 nor are people always in good humour. Iβm now ready to burst with grief at seeing my green coat torn, and they come to ask me to whip myself of my own free will, I having as little fancy for it as for turning cacique.β
βWell then, the fact is, friend Sancho,β said the duke, βthat unless you become softer than a ripe fig, you shall not get hold of the government. It would be a nice thing for me to send my islanders a cruel governor with flinty bowels, who wonβt yield to the tears of afflicted damsels or to the prayers of wise, magisterial, ancient enchanters and sages. In short, Sancho, either you must be whipped by yourself, or they must whip you, or you shanβt be governor.β
βSeΓ±or,β said Sancho, βwonβt two daysβ grace be given me in which to consider what is best for me?β
βNo, certainly not,β said Merlin; βhere, this minute, and on the spot, the matter must be settled; either Dulcinea will return to the cave of Montesinos and to her former condition of peasant wench, or else in her present form shall be carried to the Elysian fields, where she will remain waiting until the number of stripes is completed.β
βNow then, Sancho!β said the duchess, βshow courage, and gratitude for your master Don Quixoteβs bread that you have eaten; we are all bound to oblige and please him for his benevolent disposition and lofty chivalry. Consent to this whipping, my son; to the devil with the devil, and leave fear to milksops, for βa stout heart breaks bad luck,β745 as you very well know.β
To this Sancho replied with an irrelevant remark, which, addressing Merlin, he made to him, βWill your worship tell me,
Comments (0)