Don Quixote in Oct, Nov, Dec? [ Edited ]

[thewanderingjew]

I just finished reading Don Quixote with a group on Goodreads. I read the Grossman translation. Originally I purchased the Raffel but the print was unbelievably small so I returned it. The Grossman was good, easy to handle and easy to read.

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[bdNM]

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thewanderingjew wrote:

I just finished reading Don Quixote with a group on Goodreads. I read the Grossman translation. Originally I purchased the Raffel but the print was unbelievably small so I returned it. The Grossman was good, easy to handle and easy to read.

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I looked briefly at the Grossman translation.  From the chapters I read, it seemed a very readable translation.  I can recommend it, and the Rutherford translation, which is the Penguin translation.  I own that, so I'll be reading it, and I appreciate the spirit of the translator (Grossman's spirit seems to be very much like Rutherford's). 

[Peppermill]

Bernard -- have you a rough idea yet of what the first chunk of reading will be? 

I'd like to try to stay with the group, but we shall see... Don't think I can commit just yet.

I listened thru the first three chapters the past two days -- that was the first CD, so probably about an hour.  I believe the CDs are the Grossman translation,  My copy which I used to follow it is Modern Library Don Quixote.  They are quite different, so I am having some difficulties meshing the two -- some of the differences are actually rather amusing, like one having a particularly bawdy passage and the other not, even though both are supposedly unabridged.  Of course, neither can really avoid the bawdy with Don Quixote.   It's a lot of fun, but I think I am going to have to use repeating for my "sleeping pill" listening -- I missed just too much of it when I started it another time, mostly just listening, and tried to keep going from night-to-night. 

I do enjoy the differences in the word usages between the text and the recording, but when those long sentences get rearranged, the nerve cells and synapses have to work a bit to keep the two versions together.

Pepper

[bdNM]

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Peppermill wrote:

Bernard -- have you a rough idea yet of what the first chunk of reading will be? 

I'd like to try to stay with the group, but we shall see... Don't think I can commit just yet.

I listened thru the first three chapters the past two days -- that was the first CD, so probably about an hour.  I believe the CDs are the Grossman translation,  My copy which I used to follow it is Modern Library Don Quixote.  They are quite different, so I am having some difficulties meshing the two -- some of the differences are actually rather amusing, like one having a particularly bawdy passage and the other not, even though both are supposedly unabridged.  Of course, neither can really avoid the bawdy with Don Quixote.   It's a lot of fun, but I think I am going to have to use repeating for my "sleeping pill" listening -- I missed just too much of it when I started it another time, mostly just listening, and tried to keep going from night-to-night. 

I do enjoy the differences in the word usages between the text and the recording, but when those long sentences get rearranged, the nerve cells and synapses have to work a bit to keep the two versions together.

Pepper

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I thought that we could start with the Preface and the first three chapters to start -- I was looking at the work as  a whole and 3 months might be tough, esp. as we come upon the holidays.  I think it likely we'll be going a little into January. 

The Grossman translation is well regarded, and it and the Rutherford translation, which I'm reading, seem a lot alike.  Grossman seems to have a sense of the fun of the work, which some of the older translations miss -- they aim for accuracy and lose the fun of the original.

[Peppermill]

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bdNM wrote:

I thought that we could start with the Preface and the first three chapters to start -- I was looking at the work as  a whole and 3 months might be tough, esp. as we come upon the holidays.  I think it likely we'll be going a little into January. 

The Grossman translation is well regarded, and it and the Rutherford translation, which I'm reading, seem a lot alike.  Grossman seems to have a sense of the fun of the work, which some of the older translations miss -- they aim for accuracy and lose the fun of the original.

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Thanks!  That should put me in pretty good shape for the kick-off.

This is what the back cover of my ML edition says about the Smollet translation:

"This Modern Library Paperbook Classics edition reproduces the acclaimed Tobias Smollet translation; as Salman Rushdie declares, 'To my mind, this is the only English rendering of the Quixote that reads like a great novel, a novel of immense daring, much wildness and many colours.  It releases Don Quixote from the grey academic prison of many more recent translations, unleashing him upon the English language in all his brilliant, foolish glory.'"

This encomium from Rushdie surprised me, because any searches I did on Smollet gave his translation no particular merit -- they weren't negative, just not particularly positive either.  But, we really have no idea when Rushdie said this -- it might well have been before either the Rutherford or Grossman (2003) translations were available.

Carlos Fuentes is also a fan of Smollet -- he did the introduction to the ML I have and this very positive review of Grossman's translation in the NYT in 2003.

Among recent translators, Burton Raffel (1996), used for the Norton Critical edition, seems to get particular criticism for unevenness of quality and a tendancy towards pedantry rather than flavor.  Rutherford seems to have a reputation for very readable modern English.  (Wikipedia and a number of web sites do go on and on about translations [some with interesting comparisons], but I'd rather go listen/read at this point.)

So, we should have fun with our various translations.  So far, I am listening more than reading.

[Choisya]

Rabbits for the new month!  Could you put some chapter headings up now Bernard?  The usual, including location, films etc.