By Girindra Selleck
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Don Quixote needs no introduction. Miguel de Cervantes’s iconic piece of metafiction is widely recognized as the first novel ever written. This year marks the 400th anniversary of the full version’s publication.

Now, we wouldn’t be true Iowa Citians if we didn’t do something outrageous to celebrate this milestone, and resident University of Iowa Adjunct Assistant Professor Anna Barker is making sure the opportunity doesn’t pass us by.

At 9 a.m. Sept. 28 on the steps of the Old Capitol, Barker will set off on a quest to read the entirety of the novel out loud.

“It will take, probably, about four days; I’m expecting 48 hours in total,” she said. “I expect that we’ll also need about 100 people to be able to do this.”

The reading, which, in case of rain, will move indoors to the Supreme Court Chamber of the Old Capitol, is the latest in a growing lineage of epic literary undertakings Barker has made her duty over the last five years.

“In 2010, we commemorated the 100 anniversary of Tolstoy’s death,” Barker said. “I was trying to organize a couple events, and someone jokingly suggested that I read all of Anna Karenina out loud. That was all I needed.”

The reading ended up taking 34 hours to complete over the course of four days and attracted dozens of students, professors, and interested members of the community.

Some of Barker’s other accomplishments include readings of Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground — which was appropriately read at the Dublin Underground — but she is especially excited about this year’s reading.

“For a person who doesn’t speak Spanish, people often ask me why, and it’s because this book is universal,” she said. “Nothing is as old and glorified in literature as Don Quixote.”

There will be a copy of Edith Grossman’s English translation available at the reading, but Barker — who will read her section in Russian — invites multilingual speakers to read their own section in another language as well.

“We will need lots and lots of readers; I really want Iowa City as an entire entity to get involved,” she said.

A sign-up sheet is available at the entrance to the main auditorium at Phillips Hall until Sept. 27, but eager participants can also sign up on sight the day of the reading.

“The remarkable thing about these reading is you don’t know which passage you’re going to get,” Barker said of the event’s format, in which readers choose 20-minute time slots to read their sections.

The reading’s intended date of completion on Oct. 1 will also serve as the first event in this year’s Iowa Book Festival.

Looking forward, Barker hopes to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment next year.

“That one would feel out of place in as grand a location as the Old Capitol,” Barker said. “I want to read it in a pawn shop,” she said with a gleeful smile.

WORDS
Don Quixote reading
When: 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Sept. 28-29
9 a.m. – 7 p.m. Sept. 30
9 a.m. – finished Oct. 1
Where: Old Capitol east steps