Audiobook · read by volunteers
Don Quixote - Vol. 2
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547–1616)
Read by Denny Sayers (d. 2015), Luigina, Tysto, Glendower Jones, Jamie Strassenburg, Cypress, California, John Lieder, Riccardo Fasol, Antonio, Corun, Ted Delorme · 43 chapters · 21 h 31
About the book
The second part of Don Quixote finds the old knight and his faithful squire Sancho Panza setting out again, this time as characters who have already become famous: people they meet have read the first book and know all about them. This gives Cervantes the freedom to play with fiction and reality, while the adventures grow more subtle and more moving. There are pranks played on the pair by a duke and duchess, a governorship for Sancho on an island that exists only in jest, and meetings with strangers who are by turns kind, cruel or foolish. Throughout, the tone moves between comedy and tenderness. Miguel de Cervantes created one of the great masterpieces of world literature, and this is the English translation by John Ormsby. Forty-three sections, read by a team of volunteers, last more than twenty-one hours.
Introduction
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, who lived from 1547 to 1616, was a Spanish novelist, poet and playwright. Don Quixote is his most important work, published in two parts, the first in 1605 and the second in 1615. It is often called the first modern novel and has influenced writers in every language.
This recording covers the second volume, in the English translation by John Ormsby, published in 1885. The story follows the elderly gentleman who, having read too many chivalric romances, takes the name Don Quixote de la Mancha and sets out to revive the knight-errantry of the past. The sections here include the dedication and author's preface and then proceed through the chapters, sometimes taken singly and sometimes in groups.
The LibriVox recording has forty-three sections and lasts about twenty-one and a half hours, with a team of volunteers sharing the work. It is long, but the episodic structure makes it easy to listen to in stages. The novel's humour, its warmth and its reflections on idealism and common sense are as clear today as they were four centuries ago. The second part of the novel is often considered richer and sadder than the first, since the characters now know that they have become subjects of a book. Cervantes uses this to explore how stories shape the way we see the world. John Ormsby's translation is lively, and the group of readers gives the many characters a rich variety of voices throughout the long listening.
Public domain
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra died in 1616: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text