Author(s): MIGUEL DE CERVANTES

Classic

Los mejores libros jamas escritos Edicion de Florencio Sevilla Arroyo, catedratico de Filologia Espanola en la Universidad Autonoma de Madrid-Contra cuerdos y contra locos esta obligado cualquier caballero andante a volver por la honra de las mujeres.-Un exito desde el momento de su publicacion en dos partes (1605 y 1615), Don Quijote de la Mancha es probablemente la mayor novela jamas escrita. Cuenta la historia de un hidalgo que, enloquecido por la lectura excesiva, recorre Espana en busca de aventura, justicia y gloria. Las multiples interpretaciones de la obra reflejan su riqueza de significados y contenidos: una critica de las novelas de caballerias, la contraposicion entre realismo e idealismo, o una satira de las ilusiones cortesanas. Con las divertidas andanzas de su ingenioso protagonista, Cervantes retrato la complejidad de lo humano y dio al arte literario su mas alta expresion.Esta edicionincluye una introduccion que contextualiza la obra, un aparato de notas, una cronologia y una bibliografia esencial, asi como tambien varias propuestas de discusion y debate en torno a la lectura. Esta al cuidado de Florencio Sevilla Arroyo, catedratico de literatura espanola de la Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION Ten years ago, the Academies of the Spanish Language conceived of a Don Quixote for everyone. Now, it is being re-releasedin a limited editionto commemorate the 400th anniversary of Cervantes s death. 2015 and 2016 bring with them two special Cervantes anniversaries. The celebration of the 400th Anniversary of the Publication of the Second Part of Don Quixote in 2015 will be followed in 2016 by the Commemoration of the 400th Anniversary of Miguel de Cervantes s Death. As they did more than a decade ago, the Academies of the Spanish Language and Alfaguara unite for this celebration with a re-edition of the universal classic directed at the whole Spanish-speaking world. This edition boasts a new prologue written specially for the occasion by Dario Villanueva, the director of the Real Academia de la Lengua Espanola (RAE) (RAE) and president of the Asociacion de Academias de la Lengua Espanola (ASALE). It is complemented by a glossary made up of seven thousand words, expressions, phrases and proverbs, each explained according to its precise meaning in Cervantes s text. The first edition of this Quixote became a huge sales success, unprecedented for a classic work. More than three million copies, distributed in Spain and the Americas, made it the most widespread in history. The contextualizing notes about the work, prepared by Francisco Rico, contribute to its educational character and its orientation toward a diverse and non-specialized public. It also includes a series of complementary studies, written by some of the primary experts in Cervantes s consummate book. As such, Mario Vargas Llosa analyzes the modernity of Don Quixote in A Novel for the 21st Century; Francisco Ayala reflects upon the construction of the novel s characters in The Invention of the Quixote; and Martin de Riquer analyzes the work in the biographical context of the author in Cervantes and Quixote. For their part, Jose Manuel Blecua ( Don Quixote in the History of the Spanish Language ), Guillermo Rojo ( Cervantes as a Linguistic Model ), Jose Antonio Pascual ( The Linguistic Registers of Don Quixote: The Ironic Distance from Reality ), Margit Frenk ( Orality, Writing, Reading ), and Claudio Guillen ( The Course of Cervantes s novel: Perspectives and Dialogues ) deal with different aspects related to the Spanish language in Cervantes s work. Joining all this is the current director of the Real Academia de la Lengua Espanola (RAE), Dario Villanueva, who wants to take advantage of the golden opportunity that the release of this new edition offers [] to give an explanationmy explanationof some of the reasons for the high recognition that Don Quixote has gained from the date of its publication until today, as well as its clear modernity, before reminding us that Don Quixote was the work chosen in 2002 as the best novel of all time, even ahead of In Search of Lost Time by Proust and War and Peace by Tolstoy, in a survey conducted by the Swiss Writers Association of 100 authors from around the world."