The Story of Don Juan

Description

The crazy life and courageous death of a man who loved women too much to want only one. Don Juan is a passionate lover of life and nearly 1,000 women. One night, the Commendatore of Calatrava catches him kissing his daughter, and challenges him to a duel. Don Giovanni wins the duel, which of course means that the Commendatore is slain-and so begins the end for the incorrigible seducer.

Alessandro Baricco (b. 1958) is an Italian writer, director and performer whose work has become famous throughout Europe. He has been a music critic for La Repubblica and La Stampa, and his novels have been bestsellers in Italy and France. He has won, among other things, the prestigious Prix Medicis etranger and the Premio Viareggio. He is the founder of the creative writing school Scuola Holden (named after Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye), and editor of the Save the Story series.

[Save the Story] is being pursued with rare editorial panache. These books look enticing, are generously sized and dashingly illustrated... What makes these books special is that, brilliantly told by top-flight novelists, they are fresh, idiosyncratic and winning... Alessandro Baricco (whose novels I am now minded to read) has done an irresistible job with Don Juan and sums up his philandering expertise to perfection: "Leaving was the thing he did best." -- Kate Kellaway Observer We love the new, illustrated retellings in the brilliant Save the Story range from Pushkin Press TBK Magazine An amazing new series from Pushkin Books in which literary, adult authors retell classics (with terrific illustrations) for a younger generation Daily Telegraph Marvellously written... engrossing... beautifully constructed to make gifts to be treasured for Christmas Fluxlings Part of Pushkin Press's Save the Story series, Alessandro Barrico's take on Don Juan does a brilliant job boiling down the famed seducer's story to its essentials. This handsomely illustrated series, also including Antigone, Gulliver's Travels and Captain Nemo, offers younger readers vivid, accessible first encounters with some literary heavyweights Metro A children's book of the year 2013 Time Out London Perfect for readers old, young or in-between. -- Mark Perryman Huffington Post An international selection of well-established writers, each matched with a timelessly popular children's tale to reinterpret and rewrite, loyal to the original but given a new twist in the process. Oh, and lavishly illustrated too -- Mark Perryman