First Tolstoy's War and Peace, now Cervantes's Don Quixote. I guess this is my year of reading big books. War and Peace was around 1,400 pages, and Don Quixote is a "slimmer" 940 pages. The Tilting at Windmills group will begin reading May 1st or thereabouts. I am trying to decide whether to start reading the introduction now, or just jump into the story this weekend. I tend to not like reading introductions before the story (as odd as that sounds) as I hate to ruin any surprises in the story. In this case, however, I think any supplemental reading will be a good thing and probably very helpful in understanding the story.
I have the lovely new Edith Grossman translation to read. I think most people plan on reading about 50 pages a week, and that is what I also would like to do. If I can stick with my reading, I hope to start in May and finish by September. I do plan on reading other books while I read this, but if I find myself wavering, at some point I might do what I did with War and Peace and read it exclusively. I'll have to see how it goes. I have no idea what to expect from Don Quixote. Probably no battle scenes. Perhaps long philosophical asides? Maybe not. Don Quixote is a knight (or fantasizes about being one anyway)--do you think there will be sword play? It'll be an adventure whatever happens! The wikipedia says:
"The protagonist, Alonso Quixano, is a minor landowner who has read so many stories of chivalry that he descends into fantasy and becomes convinced he is a knight errant. Together with his companion Sancho Panza, the self-styled Don Quixote de la Mancha sets out in search of adventures. His "lady" is Dulcinea del Toboso, an imaginary object of his courtly love crafted from a neighbouring farmgirl by the illusion-struck "knight" (her real name is Aldonza Lorenzo, and she is totally unaware of his feelings for her. In addition, she never actually appears in the novel)."
If I can actually manage this, maybe I will round out the year by reading Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter! It is a tad bit chunkier, weighing in at 1,168 pages. If I am going to think big, I might as go all the way!
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By the way. I ordered four new Persephone Books recently. Three of the four packages arrived last week. No sign of the missing fourth one. I will be quite sad if it doesn't show up. Considering how slow the mail is sometimes, though, I suppose I should be patient.