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I've just joined. I am listening to Don Quixote on tape with the translation by Grossman. I came to this site so I could read and reread the poem and sonet in chapter 18. That is a disadvantage on listening to a book. I am into the 2nd part and have thoroughly enjoyed it so far. Sometimes I find myself driving down the road and laughing out loud! Of course, with a book on CD, a lot of the interpretatioin comes from the reader, and this one seems to be doing a great job.
I bought two copies of the Tobias Smollet translation of Don Quixote for me and my brother(they were those that are in Barnes & Noble Classics editions) over Christmas. They are filled with Gustave Dore illustrations.
Tobias Smollet lived in the 1700's and some of the dialogue in his version has early modern english, i.e., thee's and thou's.
I'm starting to have second thoughts on whether this was the best translation for me to get. I haven't seen anyone mention Tobias Smollet yet.
The poems in his version are beautifully done however, and maybe if I read this version it will give me the same sensation of distance that a modern spanish speaker would feel if he read the original version (how valuable is that sensation anyway?) and it also might highten that sense of old romanticsm, and heroics that this man feels (quixote) that is now (and by then too) far out-dated.
So, in conclusion, does anyone know if Tobias Smollet is worth it?--or someone else?
Hello!
I am about 40 pages from finishing Tobias Smollett's translation of Don Quixote. It is my first experience with the book, and while I thoroughly enjoyed it, some of the language is a bit outdated. I've also been told, although I cannot confirm it, that Smollett tends to "overflower" the language, making it actually seem more ponderous and wordy than necessary. As I do not know Spanish, I cannot read the text in its original language.... however, I will be revisiting this work in the future (I'll give myself a one or two year breather, haha).
My friend has showered accolades on John Rutherford's 2000 translation (he was the one who inspired me to read this wonderful book), and I hear many great things about Edith Grossman's 2003 translation, which has a preface by Harold Bloom and a lot of positive comments adorn the back cover. :)