Monsignor Quixote: Amazon.ca: Graham Greene: Books

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Product Description

A brilliant, gently amusing re-creation of Cervantes' masterpiece. A penetrating exploration of faith, morality and doubt. (1993)

From the Back Cover

"Graham Greene's best novel." - Spectator

"A powerful late work... a mixture of entertainment and deep human awareness." - Malcolm Bradbury

"Monsignor Quixote is important in showing what may be the last stage of the novelist's long argument with himself about the needs, nature and effect of faith." - TLS --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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4.8 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, likeable, engaging and startlingly beautiful, April 13 2004

By	Stacey M Jones (Conway, Ark.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Monsignor Quixote (Paperback)

MONSIGNOR QUIXOTE by Graham Greene was thoroughly enjoyable, and touched, as some of Greene's better works are, with a divine stroke of love and genius. And I do mean, divine. It's hard to find the words to praise Greene enough. His novels are so well executed, so elegantly written, so touching and so unexpectedly changing. They read easily, are very accessible. This book references DON QUIXOTE by Miguel de Cervantes, so I was doubly engaged here, as I had just read it. This book is about a priest, Father Quixote, who lives in El Toboso, Spain. Through a happenstance act of kindness to a man in power in the Catholic Church in Rome, Father Quixote is made a Monsignor, much to his bishop's dismay. His bishop has never liked Father Quixote. Due to his "promotion" Father Quixote has some time to take for himself, and leaves El Toboso with the town's former mayor, who has lost his re-election bid, whose last name is Panza, just like the famous Don Quixote's squire, Sancho, so Father Quixote calls his friend Sancho. Like the first and second sally in Cervantes, Monsignor Quixote and Sancho go forth in the world and have adventures. What I found wonderful about this book was the discussion between these two men about Communism and religion. They trade books and references, and argue principles lightly and engagingly. What is true about both men as Greene writes them is that they are loving people. Sancho is more cynical, but he is kind and is genuinely friends with Monsignor Quixote, and the monsignor, for his part, is truly loving, naive and true. The end of the book is a surprising and stunningly beautiful apotheosis of the ideas expressed within. This is one of my favorite works by Greene, and reminded me in some ways of the life-changing END OF THE AFFAIR. I highly recommend it.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Don Quixote and Sancho will live on, Jan 24 2001

By	Guillermo Maynez (Mexico, Distrito Federal Mexico) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: 20th Century Monsignor Quixote (Paperback)

A small-town priest (Toboso, where Don Quixote's beloved comes from) meets an Italian bishop, who promotes him to the degree of Monsignor. Before assuming his new responsibilities, he and the Marxist ex-mayor of Toboso, "Sancho" decide to take the car and travel around Spain. As they go along, they have several adventures and discuss about their respective views on religion and life. Although it is not a pretentious or "profound" novel, it touches the subjects of tolerance and, above all, the possibility of people being friends even if they have disagreements on their basic views of the world and the humankind. Or, if not friends, at least people can coexist peacefully. It really surprised me how much this book reminds me of another fine literary work -in my view, superior to this one- which constantly and funnily elaborates on this same subject: "The world of Don Camillo", by Giovanni Guareschi. This one is about a small village in post-war Italy, where Don Camillo, the local priest, and Pepone, the communist mayor, interact through the years. I have reviewed it for Amazon.com, and I think the basic conclusion if similar to that of Monsignor Quixote. Summarizing, this novel by Graham Greene is really good, not so much for the "literature" it has, but for the meaning and significance of its subject. It is a pity that few people read it. Moreover, it is yet another proof that Cervantes' masterpiece is and will remain alive, with good writers going over and over to its central characters, structure and theme.

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5.0 out of 5 stars The Don and Sancho Ride Again!, Jul 18 2000

By	Melvin Pena (Evanston, IL United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: 20th Century Monsignor Quixote (Paperback)

Graham Greene is simply fantastic. This is a novel I waited a long time to read. I actually read Cervantes' "Don Quixote" first, in the very edition Greene cites, J.M. Cohen's translation in the Penguin Classics, so that I could pay adequate respect to Greene, and the spirit of his work.

Persecuted by self-doubt at being promoted to the clerical rank of monsignor, Father Quixote, a parish priest of El Toboso, and 'Sancho' Zancas, the former mayor of the town, go for a holiday before undertaking the next phase of their lives. In a novel concerned with trying to differentiate between fact and fiction, certainty and doubt, the two must leave the shelter of comfortable, structured belief and challenge each other's resolve, as well as gauge the world's response to those beliefs. Over the course of their adventures, they drink bottle upon bottle of wine and talk about their lives and their belief systems, Catholicism and Marxism, respectively.

In "Monsignor Quixote", Greene does a marvelous job creating complex, realistic, and emotionally involving characters. His Quixote and Sancho are indeed what one might expect if Cervantes' characters had descendants living in the mid-20th century. The novel, like that of Cervantes, achieves its brilliance through dialogue, with little attention to physical descriptions, aside from what is absolutely necessary to form an image.

I do not recall the last time so short a work (it is barely over 200 pages) gave me such cause to laugh, weep, and think so deeply. Though Greene's tone may favour Catholic sentiment, it is far from orthodox, and fit for a literate and thoughtful audience. My only problem with the novel upon finishing it was that it was not much, much longer.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Humorous and beautiful modern tale
Greene updates the tale of Don Quixote beutifully in this tale of a Quixote-like priest in fascist spain. This book is beuatifully written and deeply touching. Read more

Published on May 6 2000 by Mick Jagger

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautful exploration of love beyond differences
A book I read before I read Cervantes' original, yet still appreciated greatly. The images are vivid, and the people are somehow funny and beautiful and profound at the same... Read more

Published on Aug 24 1998