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Navona

A Sea Voyage with Don Quijote

A Sea Voyage with Don Quijote

Our review

Imagine the scene: it's 1934, Hitler is already in power and the atmosphere in Europe is suffocating. Thomas Mann, the great German intellectual, boards a transatlantic liner (the Volendam) bound for New York, leaving behind his homeland and his fears. And what does he pack in his suitcase to keep his sanity during the crossing? Don Quixote.

This little book (barely 100 pages) is the logbook of that journey. But it doesn't just talk about waves and cabins. Mann reads Cervantes' masterpiece and uses it as a mirror to understand what is happening in the world. Where Don Quixote saw giants, Mann sees the real threat of fascism.

It's an exciting and cultured read. To see a Nobel Prize winner "fanboying" over Cervantes, laughing with Sancho Panza, and analyzing the humanity of the Knight of the Sorrowful Figure while the ocean separates him from war, is a unique experience. If you like literature that talks about literature, this is your book.

Book details

Synopsis

In May 1934, Thomas Mann embarks on his first trip to the United States aboard the steamship Volendam. During the ten-day voyage, he decides to reread Cervantes' Don Quixote (in Tieck's German translation). This text gathers his daily impressions, mixing brilliant literary criticism with the chronicle of an inner exile. Mann reflects on the irony, piety, and nobility of Alonso Quijano, contrasting the humanity of the Spanish character with the brutality that was beginning to devastate his native Germany.

About the edition

The Navona publishing house recovers this text in a very carefully crafted, light, and manageable edition, ideal for carrying, precisely, on a trip. The translation by Genoveva Dieterich flows wonderfully, making you feel as if Mann is whispering his thoughts to you on deck.

Technical Data:

  • Pages: 104

  • Author: Thomas Mann

  • Publisher: Navona

  • Binding: Paperback

  • Edition: 2023

  • ISBN: 9788419552129

Regular price €15,20 EUR
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