Your Daily Penguin: Don Juan!

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[@thefrancophilereader8943]

"Don Juan" is my favorite of Moliere's plays. I really want to read other retellings of the story of Don Giovani. It's a fun fable. But I've never known a version where the protagonist is being courted by others. Interesting.

[@tripp8833]

It was one of Shaw’s favorites as well - you’re in good company!

[@johncrwarner]

My only trip to the National Theatre of Finland in Helsinki was to see a production of Dom Juan (which I know in French) in Finnish - my favourite thing about an interesting production which had a famous television actor (from a Finnish soap opera, I believe as Dom Juan) was the people in the theatre who laughed the most were me (whose grasp of Finnish was that of a six year old child at the time) and a ten year old boy two rows away. Everyone else was largely silent - I hope they were inwardly laughing but it was weird.

[@EastLancsJohn]

Thanks Steve. Fascinating stuff. I am going to pursue the Tom Jones / Don Juan connection.

[@Gagging4Lit]

just ordered a Byron biography. Can't wait to get around to it.

[@saintdonoghue]

Oooooh - which one did you order? How did you decide, especially since you don't seem to have emailed me for copious opinions on the matter?

[@Gagging4Lit]

@@saintdonoghue I have chosen the Fiona MacCarthy bio. She's a biographer so I thought it would be well-researched and I think it's a long one so will be a great juicy read, I'm sure :D

[@Nastya-uj9bg]

I only read Pushkin's Don Juan!

[@johncrwarner]

My experience of Byron is really limited to hearing a dramatic reading of Childe Harold's Palgrimage by the BBC Radio in several episodes - and the versification felt too complex for me at the time and I have generally avoided Byron as a result.

[@eleninikolina1414]

Steve, he died in Italy? Byron is a hero here in Greece because he fought in the Greek War of Independence and, yes, tragically for us and for him of course, died. I will look into his work. You make it sound very fascinating.

[@vilstef6988]

The author whose footnotes I enjoy the most is Terry Pratchett.

[@lydiafeliciano2900]

Hi Steve! Wanted to let you know that "Don Juan" is pronounced like Don One. I have the same copy and look forward to reading it Thanks for the video!

[@robertdavis1783]

Interestingly enough, not in Byron’s take. In the poem “Juan” is rhymed with “ruin” and “true one,” rather than the correct Spanish “hwan.” Steve is maintaining Byron’s modification when referring to the text, but when he mentions the fictional character in general he says it the “correct” way. Blame it on those crazy English Romantics!

[@Tolstoy111]

That's not how Byron pronounced it.