Don Quijote: A Norton Critical Edition (Norton Critical Editions)

I've been reading some of the consensus all-time greats of world literature this year, books any serious reader would probably like to check off their bucket list at some point but are kind of scary to actually think about sitting down to read. War and Peace was amazing as advertised, but it for sure is a daunting, complex read. I approached Don Quijote, another 1000+ page book in most editions, expecting something similar, but right from the first pages I saw how wrong I was. This book is a crazy, funny read (but at times also sad and sentimental or noble or tragic -- everything) all the way through, just never not thoroughly entertaining all the way through, and I was truly sad when it ended and there weren't more crazy fiascos of Don Quijote and Sancho Panza to read about. Easily a 5 star + book that immediately goes near the top of my list of best books ever.As for this particular edition, the translator's great. Enlightening introduction from him and frequent footnotes throughout the book explaining translation choices for difficult passages, obscure references, and things that don't come through properly in translation (like puns on particular Spanish words).The editor, on the other hand -- useless. I've been reading through a number of Norton critical editions recently and intend to keep working my way through them for every edition they have of a classic book I want to read or reread. Before this, they had been great, excellent editorial comments on the text, helpful and informative editor's introduction, selection of mostly interesting and relevant and enlightening background materials and critical essays. This editor, however, blew it. This is a very recent updated version that only came out in 2020. The opening essay, instead of talking about the major universal themes, decides to focus on Trump's muslim travel ban that lasted about a half hour in 2017 before being overturned and forgotten by most people. It's only 2021, this book was published in 2020, and ALREADY this editorial overview is out of date and irrelevant. Then the editor provides almost zero commentary in footnotes on the text of the book. The translator helped fill in the gaps, but it's the editor's job in a Norton edition to comment on the text and provide important context and background, and she just neglected to do that. And then the critical essays, with only a couple exceptions, were terrible, useless, and pointless. I mean, who in the world in 2020 is still taking anything Freud wrote seriously? I guess only a tenured academic could still find such thoroughly debunked theories a reasonable basis for an essay about an all-time great book. And do I need a third of the essays to be on secondary characters because they happen to be women and the author wants to expound some hare-brained feminist theory? And another third again chosen because of the obsessive focus on Arabs and Muslims because apparently the editor didn't think her dated opening essay beat a dead horse quite dead enough? How about an essay just listing all the articles written about Don Quijote in recent years, just listing them rather than, I don't know, maybe actually printing some of them in this book instead of just giving academic journal references?

Don Quijote is a master piece of Spanish literature. I know it is very difficult to translate. But I was very disappointed just at the beginning. The first sentences of this book are an icon, and I found a change in the meaning of this sentences.

I typically love Norton Critical Editions. I own over 30 of them. This version of Don Quixote is not worthy to be a Norton Critical Edition, nor is it a valid edition of Don Quixote. The poetry and tributes that begin all other editions of Don Quixote, titled “To The Book of Don Quixote of La Mancha” in the Edith Grossman translation, is completely missing in this edition. It isn’t included even in the contextual or critical material at the end of the book. This is material that was written by Cervantes, yet it is not deemed important enough to be included or even mentioned by the editor in this “critical edition”. This deficiency alone is enough reason to avoid buying this edition.Also, the footnotes and critical essays in this edition are not up to the standards usually exhibited in a Norton Critical Edition of a great work of literature. My advice is definitely to read Don Quixote, but don’t waste your money on this most recent Norton Critical Edition.

I was looking for a critical edition available for Kindle, but I couldn’t find one. After a few chapters reading my Kindle, I bought this paperback as a supplement. I was expecting a healthy dose of footnotes to help with me with allusions to works of literature, real and fictitious personalities, historical notes, textual issues, etc.I’m annoyed to report that there’s little of that in this book. Footnotes are sparse – some chapters have none at all. Choices seem haphazard and inane – I didn’t really need help with “Aesop”, but more difficult nearby references pass without comment. Take, for example, Part I, chapter 6 (the book burning). There are a handful of tepid footnotes, only one of which touches on the many books Cervantes mentions – and even that one footnote does so only in passing. I was especially looking forward to a footnote discussing the author’s amusing reference in the text to another of his own books. What does the editor have to say about this fascinating nugget? You guessed it – nada.To be fair, I found the editor preface, translator’s note, and other critical essays to be interesting, informative, and helpful. The production quality is high (though the font is small and compressed). I can’t comment on the translation because I’m reading another version on my Kindle. But I was looking for footnotes, and here this edition falls short.

Very flimsy front and back covers. The original cover design with the orange border was far more attractive and recognizable on the shelf. Of course Don Quijote is a great book and all but i'm not in love with this specific edition.