Dutch · Beginner
Read Don Quichot van La Mancha in Dutchwith every sentence explained
English title: Don Quixote
Miguel de Cervantes · 1605
Free to start · iPhone, iPad & Mac
About the book
Don Quichot van La Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes was first published in 1605. In Passage you read the full text in the Dutch translation by J.J.A. Goeverneur (adapter), marked beginner and filed under fantasy and historical fiction. It runs to about 76,900 words.
Windmills become giants. A country inn becomes a castle. And a skinny old gentleman becomes a knight.
In a village of La Mancha lives a gentleman of modest means who has read so many books of chivalry that his wits have turned. He polishes up an old suit of armour, renames his bony horse Rocinante, chooses a farm girl as his lady Dulcinea del Toboso — and rides out as the knight-errant Don Quixote, to right the wrongs of the world.
At his side trots Sancho Panza, a plump, practical peasant on a donkey, lured along by the promise of governing an island one day. Together they charge windmills, flocks of sheep and a fearsome pair of lions, meet the mysterious Knight of the Mirrors and are made fools of at a duke's castle, while Sancho finally gets his “island” to rule.
Cervantes' masterpiece, often called the first modern novel, is retold here in J.J.A. Goeverneur's lively, abridged version for young Dutch readers — the perfect way to meet the famous pair.
- Author
- Miguel de Cervantes
- First published
- 1605
- Language
- Dutch
- Translated by
- J.J.A. Goeverneur (adapter)
- Level
- Beginner
- Genre
- Fantasy, Historical Fiction
- Length
- About 76,900 words
How it opens
Nog zoo heel, heel lang niet geleden woonde in een dorp van La Mancha, een edelman, gelijk men die heden ten dage in Spanje nog bij de vleet vinden kan. Zijne inkomsten waren slechts matig, en hij had daarvan althans drie vierden tot zijn dagelijksch schraal onderhoud noodig. Voor het laatste vierde schafte onze edelman zich zijne kleeding aan, die elk jaar in een nieuwen lakenschen rok, een fluweelen broek en leeren pantoffels bestond. Zijne verdere huisgenooten waren zijne nicht, een jong knap meisje van achttien jaren, eene oude huishoudster en eindelijk een jonge knaap, die het paard voeren, water halen, hout klooven en verder huiselijk werk verrichten moest.
Reading Don Quichot van La Mancha in Passage
Passage sets the book as a quiet, paginated reader in Dutch. Read at your own pace, and when a sentence stops you, tap it. You get:
- a natural translation of that exact sentence,
- a short note on the grammar, in plain words,
- the key words, which you can save with the sentence they came from,
- all of it in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Turkish or Portuguese, whichever you read best.
It's marked beginner, so it's a good first whole book if you know the basics of Dutch and want something you can finish. The words you save come back later in short review games, so the book keeps teaching after you close it.
