Cuatro años a bordo del Quijote (Invitación, 2020)

Hace cuatro años empezamos a leer el Quijote en una reunión de amigues. Las reglas del club de lectura eran sencillas: nos encontrábamos cada sábado, leíamos un capítulo por semana, comentábamos lo que quisiéramos, lo que a cada cuál le surgiera desde las páginas hasta la vida. La primera parte del Quijote tiene cincuenta y dos capítulos. La segunda parte del Quijote tiene setenta y cuatro capítulos. Esa suma da ciento treinta y seis, creo, no voy a revisar con la calculadora y he aprendido a desconfiar de mi aritmética mental. Lo importante no es eso. Lo importante es que la primera sesión fue hace cuatro años, y la última fue el sábado pasado. Leímos juntes, a través de Teams, la escena final. Hubo, claro, lágrimas. Hubo silencio. Hubo lo que el Quijote significa: la amistad del encuentro, el dolor de la pérdida y el desengaño, la fuerza de la ficción para tomar cuerpo en la realidad, modificándola, acompañándola, liberándola.
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Absurdo sería procurar reseñar el Quijote cuando es la experiencia de la lectura la que me interesa en este caso. Ya lo había leído antes. Pero no así. De hecho, nunca había leído nada así. Estuvimos cuatro años a bordo del Quijote. Fuimos otres en el trayecto. Fuimos otres al descender. Lean así. Y si es posible, lean así el Quijote.

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"طوبى للعهد الذي ستذاع فيه أفعالي الجريئة الرائعة الخليقة بأن تنقش على البرنز، وتحفر على المرمر، وترسم على الخشب، لتحيا أبداً في ذاكرة الأجيال المقبلة. وأنت أيها الحكيم الساحر، أياً من كنت، يا من قدر لك أن تكون مؤرخاً لهذه الأحداث الرائعة، أتوسل إليك ألا تنسى فرسي الطيب روثينانته، رفيقي الدائم في جميع أسفاري."

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تعود بي الذاكرة إلى أيام طفولتي حين كنت أشاهد مسلسلاً كرتونياً يكون يكون بطله فارس جوّال يريد أن يحقق الأعمال المجيدة ويغيث المستضعفين، لكن ما يحدث معه هو العكس تماماً، وكان هذا الفارس هو دون كيشوت أو دون كيخوته. كبرت وعرفت بأن المسلسل الكرتوني مأخوذ عن رواية بنفس الاسم لميجل دي ثربانتس سابدرا. كنت متخوّفة من البدء بقرائتها لأنني كنت أظن بأنها ستكون صعبة ودسمة المحتوى. وأخيراً كسرت حاجز الخوف واقتنيتها ووضعتها على قائمة القراءة لهذا العام، وحمداً لله الذي وفقني لإتمام قرائتها.

تبدأ هذه الرواية العظيمة مع النبيل ألونسو كيخانو من إقليم المانتشا، الذي كان مولعاً بقراءة كتب الفروسية، مما أثر على عقله وجعله يتخذ قراراً غير مجريات حياته كلها؛ أن يصبح فارساً جوالاً يغيث المستضعفين ويدافع عن النساء، ويحارب الأعداء الأشرار، وأن يقف في وجه الظلم وأن ينصف المظلومين ويرد لكل حق حقه. وبالفعل غيّر اسمه لدون كيخوته دي لا مانتشا وتجهّز بعتاد كامل وبخوذة ورمح، وجهّز فرسه روثينانته لبدء انطلاقته الأولى، وبالتأكيد لم ينس أن يتخذ محبوبة كعادة الفرسان الجوالة، وهي دلثنيا دل توبوسو منقطعة النظير. لكنه عاد إلى منزله بعد مدة قصيرة، واتخذ سائساً لخيله، وهو جاره الساذج، سنشوب نثا الذي طمع بالحصول على حكم جزيرة ينعم بها عليه مولاه دون كيخوته حين يربح مغامراته ويهزم الأعداء. وانطلقا ليبحثا عن المغامرات. وبفضل جنون دون كيخوته المستحكم الذي يصوّر له كل شيء على عكس ما هو حقيقة، وسذاجة سنشو، تحدث لهما الكثير من المغامرات والوقائع العجيبة، الأليمة، والخطيرة، والمضحكة، ويتعرفا على أشخاص كثر: رعاة، وفرسان، وحاملي شهادات، وهاربين من العدالة، ونسوة عاشقات، وممثلين، وحكّام، وإلخ.

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"إن أعمال دون كيخوته العظيمة لا بد أن تلقى الإعجاب أو الضحك."

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يُقال أن ثربانتس ألف هذه الرواية ليهاجم بها كتب الفروسية التي كانت واسعة الانتشار في كل أوروبا الغربية، وليس في إسبانيا وحدها. وكذلك حياة ثربانتس الحافلة بكل أنواع المصائب والنوائب والمظالم، مما جعله ييأس من الدنيا والناس، ولهذا لم يجد خيراً من السخرية والتهكم يستعين بهما على احتمال الحياة. ولهذا هاجم الناس جميعاً في روايته البديعة هذه. وهكذا كان "دون كيخوته" سخرية من البطولة الزائفة، والعدالة المموهة، والحقارة الاجتماعية. والنفاق الذي ساد في ذلك العصر. فكان "دون كيخوته" كما أراده ثربانتس، مرآة للعصر بكل مخازيه الاجتماعية، والسياسية والإدراية، ما يعج به من ذرائع ونفاق ودعاوى زائفة في الآداب والأخلاق. وقد تناول هذا كله بسخرية ليست حزينة، بل مبهجة، تنظر إلى العيوب بأفق وتردد بين البسمات والعبرات. بالإضافة للعلاقة الجدلية بين شخصية دون كيخوته وسنشو بنثا، حيث يمثّل دون كيخوته المثل الإنساني الأعلى، الذي يصطدم بالواقع الكالح فينتهي بالإخفاق. وسنشوب نثا الذي يمثّل القيم المادية والرغبة في الامتلاك.

رواية بديعة بكل ما في الكلمة من معنى. وبالتأكيد لن أنس الإشادة بروعة ترجمة الدكتور والفيلسوف الكبير عبد الرحمن بدوي، رحمه الله رحمة واسعة وجعل مجهوده هذا في ميزان حسناته.

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"الإنسانية لم تتقدم على مدى الزمان إلا بفضل نماذج قليلة من أمثال دون كيخوته تألقت في سمائها الملبدة بالغيوم في لحظات صحو وصفو نادرة."

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"هنا يرقد النبيل الباسل
الذي بلغ الغايات بشجاعته
ولوحظ أن الموت لم يستطيع
أن يقهر حياته بالهلاك
تحدى الدنيا بأسرها
وكان مثار الخوف والرهبة
في العالم في ظروف مواتية
حتى إن ما أمن له السعادة
هو أنه مات عاقلاً بعد أن كان مجنوناً"

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...

I have been accused all my life of being odd. I was the studious nerd in school. I am the cool professional at work. I am one who generally shuns attention. I am a solid rock in my family life. Except when I’m not those things. Sometimes I am a 44 year old going on 14. I get drunk with my 20-something year old friends, play pranks on people at work, put on a show during karaoke night, and exist for days on things that are only called food if you stretch the definition by a good bit. Adulting can get boring; it isn’t at all what I thought it would be and I feel the need to be someone else from time to time. Anyone else.

Literary scholars still argue today about whether Don Quixote was insane or was rebelling from a tedious boring life and was fully aware of what he was doing. I truly believe that it is the latter. The proof is right there inside the book.

On the incident with the windmills:

n  “What giants?” said Sancho Panza.
“Those you see over there,’ replied his master, “with the long arms; sometimes they are almost two leagues long.”
“Look, your grace,” Sancho responded, “those things that appear over there aren’t giants but windmills, and what looks like their arms are the sails that are turned by the wind and make the grindstone move.”
“It seems clear to me,” replied Don Quixote, “that thou art not well-versed in the matter of adventures.”n

On the incident with the sheep:

n  “Senor, may the devil take me, but no man, giant, or knight of all those your grace has mentioned can be seen anywhere around here; at least, I don’t see them; maybe it’s all enchantment, like last night’s phantoms.”
“How can you say that?” responded Don Quixote. “Do you not hear the neighing of the horses, the call of the clarions, the sound of the drums?”
“I don’t hear anything,” responded Sancho, “except the bleating of lots of sheep.”
And this was the truth, because the two flocks were drawing near.
“It is your fear, Sancho,” said Don Quixote, “that keeps you from seeing or hearing properly, because one of the effects of fear is to cloud the senses and make things appear other than they are.”n

On Dulcinea, the name DQ gives to a peasant girl whose actual name is Aldonza Lorenzo, and who is beloved above all things by DQ even though he has never met her and she doesn’t know he exists, because all knights must have a maiden to whom they dedicate all their great works:

n  “And therefore it is enough for me to think and believe that my good Aldonza Lorenzo is beautiful and virtuous; as for her lineage, it matters little, for no one is going to investigate it in order to give her a robe of office, and I can think she is the highest princess in the world. Because you should know, Sancho, if you do not know already, that two things inspire love more than any other; they are great beauty and a good name, and these two things reach their consummation in Dulcinea, for in beauty, no one is her equal, and as for a good name, few can approach her. And to conclude, I imagine that everything I say is true, no more and no less; and I depict her in my imagination as I wish her to be in beauty and in distinction…”n

On Quixote’s otherwise intelligent demeanor:

n  “The canon looked at him, marveling at the strangeness of his profound madness and at how he displayed a very fine intelligence when he spoke and responded to questions, his feet slipping from the stirrups, as has been said many times before, only when the subject was chivalry.”n

On reading books of chivalry:

n  “And your grace should believe me when I tell you, as I already have, to read these books, and you will see how they drive away melancholy if you are so afflicted and improve your spirits if they happen to be low.”n

On playing the fool:

n  “…the most perceptive character in a play is the fool, because the man who wishes to seem simple cannot possibly be a simpleton.”n

On telling tall tales:

n  “Sancho, just as you want people to believe what you have seen in the sky, I want you to believe what I saw in the Cave of Montesinos. And that is all I have to say.”n

On what happens when you force people to adult:

n  “Oh, Senor,” said Don Antonio, “may God forgive you for the harm you have done to the entire world in wishing to restore the sanity of the most amusing madman in it! Don’t you see, Senor, that the benefit caused by the sanity of Don Quixote cannot be as great as the pleasure produced by his madness?"n

On what to do when you can’t pretend to be a knight errant anymore:

n  “I should like, O Sancho, for us to become shepherds, at least for the time I must be retired. I shall buy some sheep, and all the other things needed for the pastoral exercise, and my name will be Shepherd Quixotiz and yours Shepherd Pancino, ….pleasure will give us our songs; joy, our weeping; Apollo, our verses; love, our conceits; and with these we shall make ourselves eternal and famous, not only in the present but in times to come.”n

Trust me, Don Quixote, I get it. The world needs more people who see unicorns where there are donkeys, or rainbows where there are storm clouds. The world needs people who think they are Beyonce on karaoke night. The world needs more dreamers. We aren't crazy; we just might be tired of the boring ass world everyone else lives in.

“In short, our gentleman became so caught up in reading that he spent his nights reading from dusk till dawn and his days reading from sunrise to sunset, and so with too little sleep and too much reading his brains dried up, causing him to lose his mind.” (I thought of myself when reading this quotation from the book)

So, yup, I’m done, and I am going to madly miss him, the mad Don Quixote of LaMancha, knight-errant (or, wandering knight, though he wasn’t officially a knight, and he certainly “erred” many times) and his loyal squire Sancho Panza, and his dream of Dulcinea and a life of service to the needy. Is he crazy? Enchanted? A serial Santos? A sweet, if somewhat delusional romantic? If “chivalry is a religion, are there sainted Knights in Glory”?

The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, 1,023 pages, was published by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, which allowed the author to comment in part two on the critical and public reception of part one; meta-fiction! And to also playfully dismiss all the competing stories popping up/ripping him off in a time prior to copyright laws (No, Sancho explains to people who have heard of him, we are neither drunkards nor gluttons; we sometimes survive on a handful of acorns and grapes over an eight day period!).

I read this (or at least parts of it) or much of it decades ago. But in part because I just had one of those "decade" birthdays, I thought I would read a couple larger-than-life classics. It was also mentioned in a recent novel trilogy by J. M. Coetzee as embodying the very spirit of spirituality and truth, so I just dusted it off the shelf, took a deep breath and started again on the journey of the Don's journey. So it is an early seventeenth-century novel, maybe the first modern novel, a kind of response to Books of Chivalry that were written in Cervante’s times, books much read in the previous couple centuries and still being read. There's a pretty funny (!) book-burning scene (!) where all sorts of books by authors who were contemporaries of Cervantes are thrown in the fire. To the very end, Don Quixote (mock) castigates books of chivalry as trash, while holding up his own story as the very truth.

The premise for the book-burning is that a guy who has been reading these chivalric romances renames himself Don Quixote, mounts an ass he calls Rocinante, takes along a sidekick, a former farmer named Sancho Panza he elevates to squire status, and heads out to save damsels from distress and right the wrongs committed against the downtrodden and dispossessed. He's an obvious fraud, or a pretty obvious one, as he actually does help some people. But he's also possibly a little crazy, as he intends to slay a monster everyone else can plainly see is a windmill:

"Giants! The ones you can see over there," answered his master, "with the huge arms, some of which are very nearly two leagues long."
"Now look, your grace," said Sancho, "what you see over there aren't giants, but windmills, and what seems to be arms are just their sails, that go around in the wind and turn the millstone."
"Obviously," replied Don Quixote, "you don't know much about adventures.”

I like the opening, with its anti-prologue, naming--as most books do many--zero weighty texts such as the Bible or erudite scholarly works. And this is followed by a few mock-epic sonnets in honor of various central characters we'll meet in the book.

2/10/23 update: I am now 1/3 through this more than a 1000-page tome, and still enjoying it. (too long, you say? What else do you have to do with your time?! Work, have relationships with real people?! Pah!) One question about Don Quixote is whether he is delusional or just a "cockeyed optimist." I think that the jury may still be out on that one, but I mark B on my multiple choice test. I'm pulling for him. And what is the race in which he seems to be entered? Well, essentially, the goof wants to win the heart of the small town girl Dulcinea, whom he has elevated to the status of a Goddess. Sidekick Sancho Panza observes that she may not be all that, but you know, there's no accounting for taste. You know, you say tomato.

And at the almost halfway point, we haven't really met her yet! Maybe she's just--as in most romance-and-chivalry King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable-type tales that have inspired (or deluded) Don Quixote--a fantasy figure, "the object of desire," whom the Don has little chance for in reality (unless she's deaf, blind and deluded, herself). Or maybe she is herself an illusion, an enchanted vision??!! I mean, he's just a goof, maybe flat-out nuts, and not all that much to look at himself. That ill-fitting helmet! The sad ass he rides, Rocinante, sigh. (The use of ass throughout instead of donkey may not always be intended as part of the comedy, given it is appropriate to call this animal an ass, because it just is one, but for this lifelong juvenile, sometimes the word ass adds to the comedy for me). That and the constant mention of roosters throughout, but only as cocks. (I know, that stopped being funny in fifth grade, right?)

2/12/23 update: Interlude, at the Conclusion of Part the First:

In the last several hundred pages I have begin to think of Don Quixote in contemporary terms; thus:
On the Matter of George Santos as Reincarnation of Don Quixote:

*Both are nerdy (possibly) psychopathic (ok, probably not the Don!) liars with inflated images of themselves
*Both rename themselves to create better impressions of themselves
*Both create elaborate costumes to impress others (Santo, in drag in Brazil, and now dragging the image of a politician; Quixote dressed sort of like a shabby knight on an ass--haha, I know, I’m killing myself here--instead of a steed)
*Both invent elaborate histories/back stories for themselves (but here Santo is the more outrageous)
*Both invent stories about themselves to impress others; in one latest "adventure," Don Q aspires to become either an Archbishop or Emperor to impress his desired one; he beats himself bloody to impress her and others that he is brave, in keeping with the Tenets of Chivalry. (Think Of Santos claiming he was robbed and beaten on the streets of New York; and obviously the U.S. House of Representatives gig will undoubtedly impress some of his "friends" or donors or love objects)

But at page 350, I confess I much prefer Don Quixote, whose heart is pure though his words be somewhat deluded. But you decide--I mean, both are entertaining, I read or scroll for the crazy anecdote or tidbit of the day about both of them--and see if you can imagine each of them sing with their heads held high along with this 1967 Shirley Bassey version of "The Impossible Dream" from Man of LaMancha:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzBIs...

“To dream the impossible dream, that is my quest.”

2/13/23 update: I am well past halfway, too many fun things to report, but at the beginning of book two, Cervantes pauses to do meta-fiction, as Sancho Panza and Don Quixote are back home, between chivalric quests, to kind of assess where we are at this point in the tale. Panza reports how the people of the town (or, the reading public) see them and their knight-errant adventures, which is as we see them, as ludicrous (though we may see the duo as slightly more sympathetically than they have heard some critics do) and dangerously misguided, nuts. This is certainly true of Squire Sancho’s wife Teresa, who sees him as abandoning his family for false promises of riches, which is almost certainly an accurate observation.

Sancho reveals that people have heard about their travels because there is a book, called Don Quixote, Part One, a public record of their tales, written by none other than (the brilliant) Miguel Cervantes, setting down the “true and accurate” details of their travels, a true history, contrasting the frivolous chivalric romances of the day. This provides the occasion for Don Q to talk about the uses of literature to instruct and entertain, and so on. He doesn't see the critiques of them as knight and squire all that seriously. Many great people are not fully appreciated in their time, he notes. But Don Quixote is of course eager to know how he is being represented, in case the news could possibly help him make his case with Dulcinea.

2/14/23: Goodreads friend Jeff was kind enough to call attention to my misnaming Sancho Panza with the spoonerism Pancho Sanza, which some people might have seen as my clever word play consistent with the comic linguistic buffoonery of the master Miguel Cervantes (no, they wouldn't, Dave, you idiot!). Neither is it a sign of incipient dyslexia (I hope!). I hereby correct my "slip" though I had a momentary temptation to just leave it there. But then I noticed I had also misspelled Dulcinea. . .

2/19/23 update, 3/4 of the way done, including a break to read some other things, because this puppy is loooooong (but ultimately charmingly satisfying!). Again I promise not to retell the whole dang novel, but I will say that in the second half there seems to be some serious consideration about whether it is Don Quixote of LaMancha is actually mad. Or is he enchanted in some fashion? A related question gets raised: Is the fair maiden Dulcinea actually real?! I mean, have we actually met her?! (Uh, no). Though Sancho decides she must in fact be real. Adventures continue to happen that the Don sees in considerably different ways than anyone else in the world. Sancho even tells others, my Master is flat-out crazy, but I will never part from him and his promise to make me Governor of an island, and so on:

“When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams—this may be madness. Too much sanity may be madness—and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be!”

“'But to my mind', said Sancho, 'the knights who did all that were pushed into it and had their reasons for their antics and their penances, but what reason have you got for going mad?' ‘That is the whole point', replied Don Quixote, 'and therein lies the beauty of my enterprise. A Knight Errant going mad for a good reason--there is neither pleasure nor merit in that. The thing is to become insane without a cause and have my lady think: If I do all this when dry, what would I not do when wet?’”

Don Quixote is a model wise fool: “The most perceptive character in a play is the fool, because the man who wishes to seem simple cannot possibly be a simpleton.”

“Don Quixote is so crazy that he is sure no author could have invented him.”

2/22/23 update:
My update to bring me to the conclusion of the tale must need be brief, but suffice it to say that even the last pages have their sweet pleasures, as they return home to decline and. . . well, death. Highlights? The bearded duennas. Sancho as (yes, oh ye of little faith!) Governor of his promised small island (though, true, no one has ever heard of it, and on a map there is no water around it, and it was only for ten days, but still, our hearts leap and our heads nod: Don Quixote has come through with at least one promise; can there be more?).

*I think of this book as a precursor to buddy road stories from The Three Musketeers to Huck Finn to The Road to Mandalay (Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis!) and thousands you can name. We love them.

*Our narrator asserts that after centuries of chivalric romances beloved in Spain for centuries, that this one is history, the truth:

“It is one thing to write as poet and another to write as a historian: the poet can recount or sing about things not as they were, but as they should have been, and the historian must write about them not as they should have been, but as they were, without adding or subtracting anything from the truth.”

*I love the story of Sancho’s self-lashing, as they deludedly determine that this will be the thing that releases Dulcinea from what they think of as her enchantment. 3,000 lashes, self-administered, though the scenes become comic, not really torture. Does it work?! Read it to find out!

One of the best books of all time, and mostly just fun!

علي الرغم إنها نسخة مختصرة ولكني أكتفي بما قرأت..
not my cup of tea..!

Can I tell you a story - only it may take a little time because sometimes a thousand trifles have to be recounted, as irrelevant as they are necessary, for the true understanding of a tale.

Chapter I : Regarding what befell the narrator on visiting a theatre

The comic operetta Don Quixote was being performed at my local theatre and I was amongst the audience at the first performance. It was a lively and entertaining re-enactment featuring the knight errant Don Quixote and his erring squire Sancho Panza, and many of their adventures were recounted. As I sat in the theatre watching the performance I found myself more and more drawn towards the happenings on the stage. I continually shifted in my seat, and half-rose from it many times. I kept wanting to intervene, to give Don Quixote a fine new coat of armour, for example, and to exchange the old shaving bowl he wore on his head for the real Helmet of Mambrino which, as an avid reader with a large library, I knew exactly where to find.
I wanted to give his horse Rocinante a good feed so that he would have some flesh on his poor bones (though I also knew that his and his master’s bony condition had saved them already from being eaten by a hungry lion).
I wanted to give Sancho Panza an even larger role in the story, with longer speeches, more proverbs, and greater opportunity to influence events.
I wanted to go backstage and meet with the producer - and perhaps get a glimpse of the man who wrote the libretto.
But most of all I wanted Don Quixote to finally meet the Lady Dulcinea.

Chapter II : In which the diverting adventure of a puppet master is recounted, along with other things that are really worthwhile.

The operetta had reached the scene where Don Quixote is sitting in an inn along with other customers watching a traveling puppeteer’s production of the tale of a beautiful princess held captive in a castle. In the course of the puppet show, the puppet princess escapes from the castle and is pursued by her captors. Before anyone realised what he intended, Don Quixote sprang from his seat intent on rescuing the princess. He swung his sword at the hoard of cardboard figures, reducing them, and the entire puppet theatre to smithereens within minutes. Pandemonium ensued.

Don Quixote’s reckless actions were just the example I needed. Though it wasn't easy to move fast in my long opera gown, I ran towards the steps at the side of the stage, heedless of the whisperings and murmurings of the people I’d disturbed on the way. Before anyone knew what I intended, I had joined the actors on the stage where the puppet master was loudly bewailing the destruction of his puppet theatre. Don Quixote was dreamily contemplating the havoc he had created when he glanced up and noticed me standing near him. The Knight of the Sorrowful Face never looked so happy.
“The Lady Dulcinea at last, freed from her enchantment,” he said, dropping to one knee and covering my hands with kisses.
Everyone was stupefied.
“If that's the Lady Dulcurea”, muttered Sancho Panza, looking me up and down, “I’ll eat my packsaddle!”
“Curb your tongue, you jester and longtime nuisance,” responded Don Quixote, “does it seem right to dishonour and insult a duenna as venerable and worthy of respect as she? Consider and reflect on your words before they leave your mouth.”
I wasn’t terribly pleased to be described as a ‘duenna’ but I didn’t have time to debate the point because at that moment, the producer emerged from the wings and began to propel me from the stage.
“The Lady Dulcinea will appear at the proper time, dear Don Quixote,” he whispered consolingly, “and those words you’ve just uttered about the duenna belong in a later scene. This is the scene with the puppet theatre in the inn. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
Then he signalled to the puppet master to carry on with his speech and pushed me into the wings - though I struggled a bit. I’d quite enjoyed being addressed as the Lady Dulcinea, duenna or no duenna.

Chapter III : Which continues the tale of The Reader who was Recklessly Meddlesome

“What do you think you're doing interfering in my production in such a ridiculous fashion?” the producer hissed into my ear, pushing me down a corridor and closing the door to the stage.
"It's all so entrancing I just couldn't stay in my seat," I insisted excitedly, “and I want to help Don Quixote, and Sancho Panza too, I want to arrange things better for them."
"What would you do for Sancho Panza?" he asked, standing with his back to the stage door and stroking his pointed beard thoughtfully.
"I'd give him a lot more speeches," I said eagerly, seeing that he'd calmed down a bit. "Speeches that would show him to be cleverer than he appears at the moment because I'm certain he is really very clever."
"And what would you do for Don Quixote?"
"I would give him success in a tournament, and I'd like to think he might sometime meet the Lady Dulcinea, even if only briefly."
He didn’t answer immediately, just continued to stroke his beard thoughtfully. It seemed that he might be considering my request.
“Can I examine your spectacles,” he asked suddenly, holding out his hand.
I was so surprised that I handed over my glasses immediately.
“Tortoiseshell, I see,” he said, tapping the frames with his index finger, “I've only ever seen it used for peinetas. Can I borrow these spectacles?”
“Absolutely not,” I cried, “I can’t see a thing without them and I’ll miss the rest of the play—I’m missing enough as it is.”
“Hmm, if you won’t lend the spectacles, perhaps you’d lend your person?” he said with the trace of a smile. “After the interval there’s a short scene involving a duenna called Doña Rodríguez who wears spectacles, and since you want so much to be involved, you could take her place. She only appears once, and only has a couple of lines to deliver. But you must remove that ring,” he said, pointing to a ring I wore on my left hand.
I was thrilled to be given a chance to take part and agreed immediately, especially when the director said he might tweak some of the later scenes to allow Sancho Panzo to have a greater role, just as I had requested. He went off to consult with Cide Hamete, the librettist, while a costume person brought me a long and elaborate headdress to wear, complete with a peineta. The whole thing resembled a nun's veil. I donned it unwillingly. What can't be cured must be endured, after all, and the habit does not make the nun.


Chapter IV : Which deals wth matters related to this history and no other

Immediately after the interval comes the scene where Don Quixote and Sancho Panza are being welcomed to the castle of a wealthy duke. All the duennas in the service of the duchess stand in line to greet them. This was my big scene. Each duenna is supposed to be accompanied by a daughter so I also had a daughter whose job was to hold the end of my long headdress. As I stood with all the others, the two heroes passed so close to me I could have reached out and touched their sleeves. Just as they were about to enter the castle, Sancho stopped as if he'd forgotten something, and then he turned to me and said,
"Señora Gonzalez, or whatever your grace's name may be..”
"Doña Rodriguez de Grijalba is my name,” I responded, settling into my role, "How can I help you, brother?”
I was ready to oblige him in whatever way I could until I heard what he wanted. I was to go outside the castle gate and find his donkey and take him to the stable because the donkey apparently didn't like to be left alone under any circumstances. I didn't think this was at all the kind of duty a duenna was supposed to undertake, and so I told Sancho—in a slightly raised voice. Then we traded a few insults in which the word 'old' was mentioned. The duchess and Don Quixote overheard and the Don castigated Sancho severely. “Curb your tongue, you jester and longtime nuisance. Does it seem right to dishonour and insult a duenna as venerable and worthy of respect as she? Consider and reflect on your words before they leave your mouth.”
Then the duchess explained that although I was wearing spectacles and a wimple, I was in fact still quite young. I was mollified and Sancho went on his way, muttering something about the need for duennas to show more generosity towards donkeys.

Chapter V : Which recounts the second adventure of the Duenna, also called Doña Rodriguez

I watched the next few scenes from the wings. It seemed to me that the Duke and Duchess were organizing some very elaborate entertainments at the expense of the two heroes, entertainments in which a fair amount of trickery and deceit was involved. The more I watched, the less I liked it, especially when Don Quixote was clawed by a bunch of angry cats he thought were demons. He was recovering in his bed from this attack when I decided to creep into his chamber during the night and warn him about what the Duke and Duchess were up to. To get his attention, I had to pretend there was a damsel in distress who needed his help, so I told him that my daughter had been forsaken by her lover and would he please challenge the lover to a duel. That was exactly the right way to get him onside and he began to pay attention to the rest of what I had to say. I had just begun to explain about all the trickery that was going on in the castle when some figures dressed in black appeared and began to spank me unmercifully. “Ouch,” I cried, "help, help!", but to no avail (see update status: page 772) because Don Quixote was also being attacked, and since Sancho Panza was far away, he couldn't comfort either of us with his soothing proverbs. And so ended my unfortunate and embarrassing mid-night tête à tête with the noble knight.

Chapter VI : Regarding matters that concern and pertain to this adventure

Back stage, everybody was complaining about my foolishness and audacity in meddling in the plot and generally making a spectacle of myself. The director said he regretted letting me play the part of the duenna. I was forbidden to step on stage again, and more or less thrown out of the theatre. But I didn't want to leave without speaking further with Don Quixote, and even with Sancho, who'd suddenly begun to deliver some of the best speeches of the entire opera, filled with juicy proverbs like pears in a wicker basket.
I reckoned I might as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb, and how would an omelette get made if we didn’t break a few eggs, so I hid behind a windmill prop in the wings and waited my chance. As the Don and his squire were taking leave of the Duke, I stepped onstage once again and had the most interesting of my encounters with Don Quixote and the wise squire Sancho.
When we had finished conversing, I withdrew to a seat at the back of the theatre to watch the rest of the operetta, completely satisfied that my interventions had been useful and were achieving some effect.

Postscript: Which recounts what will be seen by whoever reads it and other matters which will be understood if the reader reads with attention

So now you've heard the story of how Doña Rodriguez, who was only supposed to have one scene in the opera, ended up having three, and of how this crazy reader, who recklessly entered the story, brought this mischief about. If you don't believe any of this could have happened, read Chapter LVI of Don Quixote, Regarding the extraordinary and unprecedentedly successful battle that Don Quixote of La Mancha had with the footman Tosilos in defense of the daughter of the duenna Doña Rodriguez.
And when you’ve read that, read Chapter LXIX : Concerning the strangest and most remarkable event to befall Don Quixote in the entire course of his history which features not just one spectacle-wearing duenna but four!
My tortoiseshell glasses had started a craze.


When the performance was finally over, I left the theatre, pleased that my recklessness had lead to such a satisfying outcome, but thoughtful too about some of the things that had happened.
Why had Don Quixote addressed me as the Lady Dulcinea?
Why had the director asked me to remove my ring? I took it from my pocket and examined it. It's an old ring, in fact it's been in my family for a long, long time. I had picked it to wear to the theatre because it has a heraldic design, showing a gyron or triangular shape inside a coat of arms.
What all that signifies however, I cannot quite grasp for the moment, but I’m hoping some attentive reader will soon tell me..

بغض النظر عن شعوري المسبق بالضغينة و الكراهية و الاشمئزاز و تحاملي اللامنطقي و العرقي و المجحف تجاهها (لأني نُعِت بأوصاف عنصرية لجهلي بها من قبل أحد مواطني مؤلفها لكونها مفخرة لغتهم) إلا أن ترجمتها و لغتها العربية مذهلة مذهلة مذهلة... و مؤلفها ظريف و حاذق... 0

لذلك أبقيت ذكريات الماضي للماضي و لم أدع شيئا يفسد علي متعتي بها فهي ليست ملكا لأحد لأن مؤلفها قد مات منذ دهور و لا يحق لأحد بعده أن يفتخر بها... 0

الأسلوب الروائي مبتكر جدا و خصوصا الطريقة الذكية التي فكر بها ثربانتس لتلافي بعض الأخطاء الروائية التي وقع بها في الجزء الأول مثل حمار سنشو الذي سُرق في فصل ثم ذكره في فصل آخر...0
بس مشكلة هذه الرواية أنها طويلة جدا و هذا الدون كيخوتة ضرب على عصبي و نرفزني بجنونه يعني تمنيت فوت للكتاب و أضربو شي بوكس من كتر ما عصبني

و هي تتحدث عن هذا الدون كيخوتة الذي فقد عقله من قراءة روايات الفرسان و صار يطوف كالفرسان الجوالة مع خادمه سنشو الذي لا يقل بلها عن سيده، و صارت في هذه الرحلة مفارقات و مغامرات مضحكة...0

أحب الإشارة إلى أن الطبعة التي امتلكتها من دار المدى هي الطبعة الأولى و قد عثرت عليها بشق الأنفس، و هي عبارة عن جزئين، و الجميل فيها أنها احتوت رسوما لـ غوستاف دوري
Gustave Dore
مستمدة من أحداث الرواية، و للاسف الطبعة الجديدة لدار المدى صارت جزءا واحدا و أزالت هذه الرسوم.0

الرواية جميلة و طريفة و إن كانت طويلة جدا بحيث يتخلل القارئ الملل... لكن لا بأس من قراءتها...0

و أقول لصديقنا الإسباني الذي هزأ بي لعدم معرفتي بها: أؤكد لك أني لم أصبح أغنى و لا ازددت رقيا و تحضرا بعد قراءتها و لم تضف لي شيئا، اللهم إلا معرفة مدى سخف من يقيّم الناس على كم المعلومات التي سمعوا بها...0

One of the reasons Don Q is a modern novel is because it's constantly wrestling with the question of what's real and what's not, as well how it impacts someone who prefers to believe what is not real. I mean nothing could be more timely, timeless really, as there will always be delusional people who not only believe nonsense, but act dangerously as a result.

====================

Jorge Luis Borges wrote a brilliant short story about Don Q titled "A Problem"

What would happen, wonders Borges, if due to his belief in these fantasies, Don Quixote attacks and kills a real person? Borges asks a fundamental question about the human condition: what happens when the yarns spun by our narrating self cause grievous harm to ourselves or those around us? There are three main possibilities, says Borges.

One option is that nothing much happens. Don Quixote will not be bothered at all by killing a real man. His delusions are so overpowering that he will not be able to recognise the difference between committing actual murder and dueling with the imaginary windmill giants.

Another option is that once he takes a person’s life, Don Quixote will be so horrified that he will be shaken out of his delusions. This is akin to a young recruit who goes to war believing that it is good to die for one’s country, only to end up completely disillusioned by the realities of warfare.

But there is a third option, much more complex and profound. As long as he fought imaginary giants, Don Quixote was just play-acting. However once he actually kills someone, he will cling to his fantasies for all he is worth, because only they give meaning to his tragic misdeed. Paradoxically, the more sacrifices we make for an imaginary story, the more tenaciously we hold on to it, because we desperately want to give meaning to these sacrifices and to the suffering we have caused.

=================

Some vintage Cervantes humor.....

Sancho said to his master:

“Señor, I’ve already conveyanced my wife to let me go with your grace wherever you want to take me.”

“Convinced is what you mean, Sancho,” said Don Quixote, “not conveyanced.”

“Once or twice,” responded Sancho, “if I remember correctly, I’ve asked your grace not to correct my words if you understand what I mean by them, and when you don’t understand, to say: ‘Sancho, you devil, I don’t understand you,’ and if I can’t explain, then you can correct me; I’m so plaint….”

“I do not understand you, Sancho,” said Don Quixote, “because I do not know what I am so plaint means.”

“So plaint means,” responded Sancho, “That’s just the way I am.”

“Now I understand you even less,” replied Don Quixote.

“Well, if you can’t understand me,” responded Sancho, “I don’t know any other way to say it; that’s all I know, and may God protect me.”

“Oh, now I have it,” responded Don Quixote. “You mean to say that you are so pliant, so docile and softhearted, that you will accept what I tell you and learn what I teach you.”

“I’ll bet,” said Sancho, “you knew what I was saying and understood me from the beginning, but wanted to mix me up so you could hear me make another two hundred mistakes.”

“That may be,” replied Don Quixote. “Tell me, then, what does Teresa say?”

“Teresa says,” said Sancho, “that I should keep a sharp eye on you, and there’s no arguing against written proof, because if you cut the deck you don’t deal, and a bird in hand is worth two in the bush. And I say that a woman’s advice is no jewel, and the man who doesn’t take it is a fool.”

(Part II, pp. 497-498, Grossman translation)

--------

Famous sayings in Don Quixote.....

I was so free with him as not to mince the matter.
Don Quixote. The Author’s Preface.

They can expect nothing but their labour for their pains.
Don Quixote. The Author’s Preface.

As ill-luck would have it.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book i. Chap. ii.

The brave man carves out his fortune, and every man is the son of his own works.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book i. Chap. iv.

Which I have earned with the sweat of my brows.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book i. Chap. iv.

Can we ever have too much of a good thing?
Don Quixote. Part i. Book i. Chap. vi.

The charging of his enemy was but the work of a moment.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book i. Chap. viii.

And had a face like a blessing.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book ii. Chap. iv.

It is a true saying that a man must eat a peck of salt with his friend before he knows him.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. i.

Fortune leaves always some door open to come at a remedy.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. i.

Fair and softly goes far.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. ii.

Plain as the nose on a man’s face.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. iv.

Let me leap out of the frying-pan into the fire;
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. iv.

You are taking the wrong sow by the ear.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. iv.

Bell, book, and candle.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. iv.

Let the worst come to the worst.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. v.

You are come off now with a whole skin.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. v.

Fear is sharp-sighted, and can see things under ground, and much more in the skies.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. vi.

Ill-luck, you know, seldom comes alone.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. vi.

Why do you lead me a wild-goose chase?
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. vi.

I find my familiarity with thee has bred contempt.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. vi.

The more thou stir it, the worse it will be.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. vi.

Now had Aurora displayed her mantle over the blushing skies, and dark night withdrawn her sable veil.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. vi.

I tell thee, that is Mambrino’s helmet.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. vii.

Give me but that, and let the world rub; there I ’ll stick.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. vii.

Sure as a gun.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. vii.

Sing away sorrow, cast away care.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. viii.

Thank you for nothing.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. viii.

After meat comes mustard; or, like money to a starving man at sea, when there are no victuals to be bought with it.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. viii.

Of good natural parts and of a liberal education.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. viii.

Would puzzle a convocation of casuists to resolve their degrees of consanguinity.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. viii.

Let every man mind his own business.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. viii.

Murder will out.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. viii.

Thou art a cat, and a rat, and a coward.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. viii.

It is the part of a wise man to keep himself to-day for to-morrow, and not to venture all his eggs in one basket.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. ix.

I know what ’s what, and have always taken care of the main chance.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. ix.

The ease of my burdens, the staff of my life.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. ix.

I am almost frighted out of my seven senses.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. ix.

Within a stone’s throw of it.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. ix.

Let us make hay while the sun shines.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. xi.

I never thrust my nose into other men’s porridge. It is no bread and butter of mine; every man for himself, and God for us all.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. xi.

Little said is soonest mended.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. xi.

A close mouth catches no flies.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. xi.

She may guess what I should perform in the wet, if I do so much in the dry.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. xi.

You are a devil at everything, and there is no kind of thing in the ’versal world but what you can turn your hand to.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. xi.

It will grieve me so to the heart, that I shall cry my eyes out.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book. iii. Chap. xi.

Delay always breeds danger.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book iv. Chap. ii.

They must needs go whom the Devil drives.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book iv. Chap. iv.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book iv. Chap. iv.

More knave than fool.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book iv. Chap. iv.

I can tell where my own shoe pinches me; and you must not think, sir, to catch old birds with chaff.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book iv. Chap. v.

I never saw a more dreadful battle in my born days.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book iv. Chap. viii.

Here is the devil-and-all to pay.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book iv. Chap. x.

I begin to smell a rat.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book iv. Chap. x.

I will take my corporal oath on it.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book iv. Chap. x.

It is past all controversy that what costs dearest is, and ought to be, most valued.
Don Quixote. Part i. Book iv. Chap xi.

I would have nobody to control me; I would be absolute: and who but I? Now, he that is absolute can do what he likes; he that can do what he likes can take his pleasure; he that can take his pleasure can be content; and he that can be content has no more
Don Quixote. Part i. Book iv. Chap. xxiii.

When the head aches, all the members partake of the pain.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. ii.

He has done like Orbaneja, the painter of Ubeda, who, being asked what he painted, answered, “As it may hit;” and when he had scrawled out a misshapen cock, was forced to write underneath, in Gothic letters, “This is a cock.”
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. iii.

There are men that will make you books, and turn them loose into the world, with as much dispatch as they would do a dish of fritters.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. iii.

“There is no book so bad,” said the bachelor, “but something good may be found in it.”
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. iii.

Every man is as Heaven made him, and sometimes a great deal worse.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. iv.

Spare your breath to cool your porridge.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. v.

A little in one’s own pocket is better than much in another man’s purse.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. vii.

Remember the old saying, “Faint heart never won fair lady.”
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. x.

There is a remedy for all things but death, which will be sure to lay us out flat some time or other.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. x.

Are we to mark this day with a white or a black stone?
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. x.

Let every man look before he leaps.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xiv.

The pen is the tongue of the mind.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xvi.

There were but two families in the world, Have-much and Have-little.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xx.

He has an oar in every man’s boat, and a finger in every pie.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxii.

Patience, and shuffle the cards.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxiii.

Comparisons are odious.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxiii.

Tell me thy company, and I will tell thee what thou art.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxiii.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxiv.

He is as like one, as one egg is like another.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxvii.

You can see farther into a millstone than he.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap xxviii.

Sancho Panza by name, is my own self, if I was not changed in my cradle.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxx.

“Sit there, clod-pate!” cried he; “for let me sit wherever I will, that will still be the upper end, and the place of worship to thee.”
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxxi.

Building castles in the air,
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxxi.

It is good to live and learn.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxxii.

He is as mad as a March hare.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxxiii.

I must follow him through thick and thin.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxxiii.

There is no love lost between us.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxxiii.

In the night all cats are gray.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxxiii.

All is not gold that glisters.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxxiii.

I can look sharp as well as another, and let me alone to keep the cobwebs out of my eyes.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxxiii.

Honesty is the best policy.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxxiii.

Time ripens all things. No man is born wise.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxxiii.

A good name is better than riches.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxxiii.

I drink when I have occasion, and sometimes when I have no occasion.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxxiii.

An honest man’s word is as good as his bond.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxxiii.

Heaven’s help is better than early rising.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxxiv.

I have other fish to fry.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxxv.

There is a time for some things, and a time for all things; a time for great things, and a time for small things.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxxv.

But all in good time.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxxvi.

Matters will go swimmingly.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxxvi.

Many go out for wool, and come home shorn themselves.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxxvii.

They had best not stir the rice, though it sticks to the pot.
Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. xxxvii.

Where one door shuts, another opens.

Diligence is the mother of good fortune.

Misery loves company.

The blind man leading the blind man.

Forewarned is forearmed

===============

So the reason I read this book I think is actually kind of fun. About 8 years ago I was at a 2nd hand store. See, I like to go to those sometimes to pick up glass flower vases to do etchings on and misc other cheap items that I can be artsy-fartsy with. Anyway, So I am at this 2nd hand store and I see this dark wooden (seemingly) hand-carved character. He is about 10-12 inches tall and he has the look of a Spanish knight of some sort. His stature is tall and lanky, with a big chip in his helmet. He has this pointy beard and a very stoic look on his face. I thought he was just charming and he was only a few dollars so I bought him with no idea of who he was and promptly perched him on my mantle at home. A few years later I had a friend come over and he informed me that my favorite little stoic knight was actually Don Quixote. Of course I had heard of Don Quixote before but I had never read the book so I didn’t know enough about him to make the connection. I have since received a beautiful dark wooden windmill that I have proudly placed behind Quixote. I am still on the lookout for a Sancho Panza wooden squire. I have no idea if my little wooden figure is valuable (nor do I care) or even hand carved but his wonderful, proud, gallant face always brings a smile to mine.

My statue looks very similar to this picture that I found on the web:


Random musing over. Start book review.
I read this one a long time ago but I liked it. It’s a classic, and one of the few that is actually an enjoyable read. Everyone should read this book at least once in their life.

The truth may be stretched thin, but it never breaks, and it always surfaces above lies, as oil floats on water.
Don Quixote ~~  Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra



n   Don Quixoten is as good as, if not better than, everything you have ever heard about it. I've not felt such a sense of accomplishment in finishing a book since I closed the cover on n   Ulyssesn 15 months ago. Yes, it’s that good.

If you’ve never read n   Don Quixoten you are more than likely to be familiar with the story of n   Don Quixoten, but there is so much more to this amazing piece of writing than an old man fighting windmills.

n   Don Quixoten by  Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra has been called the Bible of humanity and the universal novel. After having read it, I believe this to be true. Published in 1605, this two-part book is the work of fiction that single-handedly created modern Western storytelling. n   Don Quixoten’s effect is everywhere ~~ he's in Mowgli from n   The Jungle Bookn and Billy Pilgrim in n   Slaughterhouse Fiven.

Four hundred years later, n   Don Quixoten’s importance has not diminished.



Alonzo Quixano, an impoverished man possibly of the gentry ~~ one is never quite sure ~~ rises one day after reading too many romances. Driven mad by that other world where knights, courtly manners, the meaning of life, and greatness of soul are upheld and ~~ most importantly ~~ evident, he decides to change his name to Don Quixote de la Mancha. Putting on armor and helmet ~~ at least that’s what he thinks his hat is ~~ he sets out to seek a quest to do chivalrous deeds in the mundane world. Or is the world not so mundane?

As he travels, he meets royalty and clergy, rich and poor, fellow-travelers and the working classes. Throughout, he is accompanied by Sancho Panza, who is quite his opposite: a realist who sees life as it is but who is too kindhearted to go about forcing his views on others. Sancho is especially admirable in this regard, because if indeed Don Quixote is great, it is a greatness the world does not recognize.



The world Cervantes creates reflects the cross-section of a society moving from one world toward another, a world which is incapable of recognizing either itself or others because societal standards are changing. Cervantes seems to be concerned about this changing and societal flux. The glorious truths of dogmatic religion and romantic chivalry may or may not work in the practical world where money, power, and pragmatism are what really matter. In the pragmatic world, shrewdness, power, wealth, gender, and youth matter. Noble values are ridiculous and pitiable at best, dangerous at worst, and ugly realities whatever way one looks at them.

The question here is Don Quixote a great soul in a small, mean-spirited, cruel world? Is this a story which is a pitiful depiction of an old man’s dementia? Is Cervantes on the side of his hero? Or does he really think there is bliss in avoiding ideals and the written spiritual and romantic books which indoctrinate? I don't have an answer to this. Neither I think did Cervantes.

Cervantes writes about his time and about the Spanish character, but he also writes about human nature, universal hopes, general historical and social factors. Whatever one thinks of  Don Quixote, this extremely long novel is a classic that should be read by all who treasure brilliant literature.

This review feels incomplete, but I think it's best that way.

This was not the longest book I've ever read (close, though). However, it certainly felt like the longest book I've ever read. The problem is not the length - the problem is that until the last 150-some pages, there is no continuous plot to keep you invested in the story. Everybody knows that this is the story of a crazy guy who decides to be a knight one day, and he and his squire go on crazy adventures together and hilarity and tilting at windmills ensues. What people might not know, however, is that there's no overarching quest, no ultimate goal. This book is over 1,000 pages of, "Don Quixote did this. And then he did this. And then he went here and this happened. And then this person told a story. And then they did this." On and on and on, it's just dumb adventure after dumb adventure, and they're literally interchangeable - the timeline of the story doesn't matter at all.

Not that the stories are bad, necessarily. Sure, some of them are stupid and pointless (and involving humor based on someone barfing or pooping), and they tend to repeat themselves (oh hey look, another hot Middle Eastern chick who we only like because she converted to Christianity), but they're usually funny, at least. But without an overall plot linking the stories together or giving them some significance, nothing really matters. (speaking of which, did anybody see Sucker Punch? Holy mother of God.)

Throughout the whole book, nobody ever learns anything or changes or even bothers to sit Don Quixote down and have a serious conversation about why he wants so badly to disappear into this fantasy life he's created for himself. Ultimately, this is nothing more than a collection of funny anecdotes, with some scatological humor and attempted swashbuckling thrown in.

I said that nobody learns anything in the book, but that's not technically true. When Don Quixote finally comes home after all his adventures, he gets sick and is dying. It's at this point that he has a revelation - that he was deluding himself with his dream of being a knight-errant, and that it was all pointless and stupid. Fine, but then he takes it a step further. He decides that all the adventure books he read are the only thing to blame for this obsession, and that they should be wiped from the face of the earth so no one else can be decieved by them. He even writes his will to include the rule that if his niece wants to get married after his death, the guy had better not have read even a single knight-errantry book, or she doesn't get her inheritence.

I don't know what we're supposed to take away from that. An adventure book that ends with the hero deciding that adventure books are evil and ruin people's lives? What the hell, Cervantes?

"Don Quijote loco y nosotros cuerdos: él va sano riendo, vuesa merced queda molido y triste.
Sepamos, pues, ahora, cuál es más loco: ¿el que lo es por no poder menos, o el que lo es por su voluntad?

Antes de comenzar a escribir mi reseña de este libro maravilloso, debo pedirle mis sentidas disculpas a don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, puesto que considero una falta de respeto el no haber leído su Don Quijote de la Mancha mucho tiempo antes de todos los que leí y revisioné mucho después, especialmente y teniendo en cuenta de que me considero un lector de clásicos.
Entonces, ¿por qué no empezar por el clásico más importante de todos? No diré que es algo imperdonable, pero si lo considero una falta grave. Además, aclaro que una novela de semejante calibre merecería una reseña acorde a su relevancia y aunque no puedo aventurar que sea tan extensa como la obra, trataré de hacerlo de la manera más sentida posible.
Don Quijote de la Mancha es considerada la primera novela moderna en la historia de la literatura, de eso no hay discusión ni vueltas. Podríamos considerar que hay antecedentes que nos remontan a la época de las epopeyas griegas, pero estas están escritas en hexámetros y no poseen el cuerpo de una novela propiamente dicha.
Otro antecedente se le atribuiría a Los cuentos de Canterbury el Decamerón pero estos están orientados más al cuento aunque posean un hilo conductor entre los distintos personajes que narran sus historias en ambos libros.
A mi entender, podría decirse que Gargantúa y Pantagruel, escrito por Rabelais en 1534 es la obra que más se aproxima al contexto novelesco del Quijote dado que ese caso sí nos encontramos con una historia cuya coherencia conceptual y argumental se equipara con la de Cervantes.
Algunos teóricos e historiadores literarios pretenden atribuírselo a una novelita llamada "La Princesa de Clèves" escrita por Madame de La Fayette en 1678, pero eso es algo de lo que prefiero no opinar puesto que me ofende de sobremanera.
No existe novela alguna que pueda considerarse como iniciadora del género como lo es Don Quijote de la Mancha, que fue la más traducida, la que más se ha editado y que en muchas ocasiones ha sido pobremente imitada, recreada o reversionada.
Miguel de Cervantes fue un escritor total, puesto que incursionó en la novela, la poesía y especialmente el teatro, pero fundamentalmente y a partir del Quijote es considerado un auténtico innovador en la literatura considerando que la primera parte de esta novela fue escrita en 1605 y la segunda diez años más tarde a partir del enojo de Cervantes ante la publicación de una segunda parte apócrifa, escrita por un tal Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda en 1614, tergiversando la historia de Cervantes con saña y mala intención, algo que el mismo Cervantes se encargará de ajusticiar tanto en el prólogo como en pasajes de la segunda parte a cargo de su propio Quijote tomando a modo de burla al escritorzuelo de Tordesillas.
En realidad, Cervantes no tenía intención de escribir una segunda parte pero esto lo obligó a sacar al ruedo a su hidalgo y escudero y a sellar su muerte hacia el final de la historia echando por tierra cualquier intento trasnochado de resucitar a su personaje.
Retomo el concepto de innovador de Cervantes puesto que en Don Quijote podemos encontrar verdaderas características de intertextualidad, o sea, “la relación que un texto (oral o escrito) mantiene con otros textos (orales o escritos), ya sean contemporáneos o anteriores; el conjunto de textos con los que se vincula explícita o implícitamente un texto constituye un tipo especial de contexto, que influye tanto en la producción como en la comprensión del discurso (tomado esto de conceptos de teoría literaria).
A qué me refiero con esto, a que constantemente en esta novela encontraremos conexión con otras obras como "Las Metamorfosis" de Ovidio, "La Eneida" de Virgilio, "La llíada" y "La Odisea", ambas de Homero, el "Orlando Furioso" de Ariosto, "El Lazarillo de Tormes", "El Vellocino de Oro" de Apuleyo, infinidad de referencias a los textos bíblicos del Viejo y Nuevo Testamento, el género picaresco, la sátira, el romancero, el barroquismo, obras del Renacimiento, la poesía y por supuesto, lo más importante de todo: las novelas de caballería.
Tan innovador es Cervantes que incluso por primera vez incluye pequeñas novelas dentro de la novela principal, como lo son las de "El Curioso impertinente" y "El Cautivo", las historia de Dorotea, el Caballero de la Sierra, el cuento de la pastora Marcela, la curiosa historia de la infanta Micomicona, la dueña Dolorida, la Altisidora y la de doña Rodríguez. Este concepto de novela dentro de otras será explotado por gigantes literarios de la talla de Fiódor Dostoievski o Herman Melville, como podemos comprobar dentro de obras como "Los Hermanos Karamázov", "Los Demonios" o "Moby Dick", por nombrar sólo algunos títulos, lo que prueba la influencia del gran escritor español para las letras que le sucedieron.
¡Y todo esto dicho a partir de los diálogos de Don Quijote, Sancho Panza y un puñado de personajes que no llega a la veintena! ¿Quién puede negar la grandeza innovadora y pionera de Cervantes en la literatura? ¿Quién puede negarlo como uno de los padres de las letras universales?
Don Quijote está narrado a partir de las crónicas de un musulmán, llamado el Cide Hamete Benengeli. Cervantes lo utiliza como alter ego para llevar adelante la historia del hidalgo en las dos partes. Luego de terminar la novela reconozco encontré un poco más difícil de leer la primera parte que la segunda. Tal vez, el español antiguo conspira contra el lector que no está acostumbrado a este tipo de narrativas.
Leí la edición de Penguin Clásicos revisada por el catedrático de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid y especialista en el Siglo de Oro español, Florencio Sevilla Arroyo, quien contribuyó con 1710 notas a pie de página para la primera parte y 1887 para la segunda, lo que demuestra cuánto cuesta adaptar una obra del siglo XVII a nuestros días. Confieso que en algunos casos me fue realmente útiles y en otros simplemente no me ayudaron a comprender la naturaleza del vocablo o frase, pero es preferible contar con 3597 notas al pie que con ninguna.
Pero vayamos brevemente a nuestros personajes principales. Alonso Quijano (Quejana en la primera parte), devenido en Don Quijote es el símbolo del idealismo y el heroísmo que todos los seres humanos poseemos en cuerpo y alma y que expresamos en mayor o menor media. Su devoción total a las novelas de caballerías y a enarbolar las banderas de la causa del caballero andante, su idolatría a personajes como Amadís de Gaula y el mismo Orlando Furioso lo llevan a calzarse las armas, vestir su armadura y montar a Rocinante para buscar aventuras inventadas por su propia locura y sus visiones desmedidas.
Y todo esto porque como bien lo aclara el Cide Hamete: "En resolución, él se enfrascó tanto en su lectura, que se le pasaban las noches leyendo de claro en claro, y los días de turbio en turbio, y así, del poco dormir y del mucho leer, se le secó el cerebro, de manera que vino a perder el juicio. Llenósele la fantasía de todo aquello que leía en los libros, así de encantamientos, como de pendencias, batallas, desafíos, heridas, requiebros, amores, tormentas y disparates imposibles, y asentósele de tal modo en la imaginación que era verdad toda aquella máquina de aquellas soñadas invenciones que leía, que para él no había otra historia más cierta en el mundo."
Nombra a Sancho Panza su fiel escudero y sale al galope para luchar contra todos los encantadores que le persiguen y a la vez, jurando el amor eterna a su amor, doña Dulcinea del Toboso, una doncella que sólo vive en su imaginación y que nunca vio y la que ni siquiera su rostro conoce. Esta Dulcinea si es de carne y hueso en la novela: se llama Aldonza Lorenzo pero nunca se entera del amor que el Caballero de la Triste Figura le profesa eternamente.
Se enredará en un sinfín de misiones peligrosas en las que algunas que casi le cuestan la vida. Algunas de ellas son arremeter contra molinos de viento confundiéndolos con gigantes de muchos brazos, sus cruces con el Cortés de la Muerte, el Caballero del Bosque, el Caballero de los Espejos (que es una chanza llevada a cabo por su amigo Sansón Carrasco para probar el estado de su locura), el Caballero del Verde Gabán, su lucha por apoderarse del yelmo de Mambrino que al fin de cuentas es una bacía de barbero, su incursión a la cueva de Montesinos, el rebaño de carneros que confunde con un enorme ejército y por sobre todo con una pesada broma que le juegan el Duque y la Duquesa durante su estadía en el castillo de estos.
Todas estas visiones ilusorias o ideales inalterables de don Quijote serán tomadas por otros autores. Podría citar a Lewis Carroll para su "Alicia en el país de las Maravillas" y "Alicia a través del espejo", puesto que tanto molinos de vientos como un rebaño de carneros devenidos en ejército pueden compararse con los ejércitos de naipes y animales fantásticos que crea Carroll en sus libros.
Los ideales quijotescos pueden apreciarse incluso en personajes como el Príncipe Mishkin en la novela "El Idiota" de Fiódor Dostoievski con su lema "La belleza salvará al mundo", o en el de Ignatius Reilly de "La conjura de los necios" de John Kennedy Toole. Nikólai Gógol escribe "Almas Muertas", considerado "el Quijote ruso" dado que su afinidad con el hidalgo español es sorprendente si tenemos en cuenta el viaje que realiza y las personas con las que se encuentra su personaje principal, Chichikov junto a su lacayo Petrushka y que tiene innumerables puntos en común entre ambas novelas, algo de destacar en Gógol del que se nota también poseer una verdadera admiración por la obra de Cervantes.
Y comento esto por tomar sólo dos casos de la influencia que Cervantes ejerció en tantos escritores y que es vasta puesto que no hay autor que no le admire: como dijera previamente, Fiódor Dostoievski, Herman Melville, pero también Goethe, Gustave Flaubert y su "Quijote con faldas", como llamaron a "Madame Bovary", Jorge Luis Borges, Benito Pérez Galdós, Miguel de Unamuno. En fin, la lista es larga...
Pero don Quijote es fiel a sus ideales, nunca ceja ni se detiene, se compromete a defender al débil, como a ese muchacho que está siendo azotado por su amo o aquella doncella que fue ofendida por su enamorado. Siempre tomará su lanza y nunca defraudará a todo aquel que necesite de su ayuda.
Qué decir de Sancho Panza, ese escudero fiel, aunque temeroso enamorado del buen comer quien también persigue un ideal que al final consigue, el de ser gobernador de la ínsula Barataria que don Quijote le promete y a través del duque se le concede. Tan sólo diez días durará su gobierno, pero estará poblado de jugosas anécdotas. El significado de la amistad está fielmente demostrado en la figura de este personaje que nunca abandona, que acompaña y que se sacrifica por su amo más allá de su notoria cobardía.
Queda también claramente establecido el contraste entre el idealismo de don Quijote y el realismo de Sancho Panza, y esto funciona a modo de perfecto equilibrio entre las partes. Ambos son dos polos opuestos que a la vez se suplementan y complementan hasta en un grado tal que uno no puede funcionar muy bien sin el otro. Se necesitan, se apoyan y se sostienen. Se transforman en uno sólo.
Un rasgo único y maravilloso de Sancho Panza es su fuente infinita de refranes y frases. Todo lo que expresa se transforma en una maraña de dichos que a veces confunde y que hacen reír al lector. Y es que Sancho es uno de los personajes más divertidos y más queribles de la literatura. ¿Quién puede no sentir cariño por un personaje como él? Sancho es un personaje justo y necesario y otra hubiera sido la novela él no hubiera estado en ella.
Leer todos esos refranes y proverbios de Sancho me hizo recordar instantáneamente a mi abuela, doña Palmira Alende González de Bueno, españolísima de origen, casada con don Inocencio Bueno, ambos originarios de Castilla la Vieja y, oh casualidad, que en la página final del Quijote encuentro que el Cide Hamete nomba su ciudad natal...
Mi abuela, famosa por tener frases y refranes que nunca olvidé, que le decía a mi madre y que luego me trasmitía a mí fue una comparación perfecta para las frases de Sancho. Si me habré reído con sus dichos como "Al que juega con la miel se le pega" y "Eso es la lotería más segura", cuando se enteraba de que una de sus hijas estaba embarazada u otras como "Allá Marta con sus pollos" y la que más me gusta: "Mucho te quiero culo, pero no te alcanzo a besar"; todas estas frases son sanchezcas, cervantinas y españolas.
Leer a Sancho fue recordar a Palmira.
En resumidas cuentas, Don Quijote de la Mancha es la madre de todas las novelas, guste o no.
Cervantes supo crear en Don Quijote un personaje único, inolvidable y por que no, alguien del cual todos tenemos algo, ya que de cuerdos y locos todos tenemos un poco.
¡Dios tenga en la gloria a don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, al Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha y a don Sancho Panza!
Este viaje maravilloso de 1215 páginas valió bien la pena.
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