The Double-Edged Sword

It is a double-edged sword isn't it, reading great books too early in life?

If we read a book too early in life, we may not grasp it fully but the book becomes part of us and forms a part of our thinking itself, maybe even of our writing. But on the other hand, the reading is never complete and we may never come back to it, in a world too full of books.

And if we wait to read till we are mature, we will never become good readers and writers who can do justice to good books... so we have to read some good books early and do injustice to them. Only then can we do justice to ourselves and to great books later on.

One is reminded of Calvino in Why Read the Classics when we meditate on this.

Now the question is which books to do the injustice to and which the justice. Do we select the best for the earliest so that they become a part of us or do we leave the very best for later so that we can enjoy them to the fullest?

Tough choice. I have never been able to resolve. Have you?

Don Quixote, English edition: 1050 pages. & not once was I like, "This ain't worth it." Because it is!

The novel about novels (my favorite motif of all lit is lit within lit... storytelling...ya know...?) is actually a novel about love. The three voyages by Don Quixote are obvious metaphors for life and all the characters he meets along the road are romantically inclined, bored and in want of change. Don Quixote and his squire, Sancho Panza, provide ample entertainment for them and for us, the reader.

This relationship lasted a month and I cannot recall a single detriment. It is structured like The Arabian Nights and The Canterbury Tales---that is, much is told of the character telling the story, and of his or her potential madness or sanity. This dualism is explored to the fullest & characterized by moments of sheer happiness & almost-delirium. There is a world established here, and did it actually occur? The characters fall into apocrypha and then into stark reality. It is no mistake that Cervantes foretold what the two adventurers realize at about page 900: they will be famous for all time and their images shall be ingrained everywhere. Don Quixote and Sancho Panza are immortal in Spain and can be seen pretty much in every town traversed. The self-sppointed prophecy lives to this VERY DAY!!!! That fiction merges with history, that the book is self consious and post modern... all these things and more are part of the Quixote legend.

I say the book is about love because everyone suffers from the disease: Don Quixote loves his tales of knight errantry, and his own views of chivalry clash with those of the folks he meets. He is progressively antiquarian. Sancho is in love with his master, has a very stable view on life (he attains the title of governor and insists, ten days later, to quit and continue his life with his knight) and talking in proverbs he displays, until Book II of course, a wisdom that has obviously evolved, like the story, like the character, like the reader. There are plenty of characters in love with damsels, there are peasants in love with a good laugh (even the ass and Rozinante, the "Knight of the Rueful Figure"'s steed, find eternal companionship) and then there is the reader, an IMPORTANT FIGURE IN THIS ADVENTURE (also) who is sure to fall under the enchantment of this classic that defies conventional storytelling and has absolutely no rival.

In the north of England there once lived a middling sort of gentleman, who, due to a kind of cantankerous disinterest in the human race, was very much taken with reading, so much so, in fact, that he believed that he had read every novel that was worth reading. He had, to the astonishment of the online community, read In Search of Lost Time, Anna Karenina, Henry James’ later novels, The Iliad, The Magic Mountain, and so on, multiple times, and as a result the unfortunate man’s brains became addled. It was, however, perhaps Don Quixote, Cervantes’ famous novel about a mad old man who believed himself to be a knight errant, that did him the worst damage. He bought up numerous copies of the book, in multiple translations, and, after reading them all, he started to think himself, not any old knight, but the Knight of the Mournful Countenance, Don Quixote.

To this end, he ordered a helmet from ebay, which to the naked [or sane] eye would have looked like a reproduction Optimus Prime mask. Next, he purchased a sword, a samurai sword, to be exact, from some shady youngster whose acquaintance he had made on a street corner at 3am, and who had initially tried to persuade him to buy a small packet of white powder. These things, though lacking quality, came easy to our hero, but more difficult to acquire was his Rocinante, for there isn’t much call for horses in a busy northern city centre. A solution was found, however, when [P], for that was our hero’s name, spotted a mongrel, homeless dog one evening, which, to him, had the appearance of a magnificent steed. ‘You will be my Rocinante,’ he said to the nervous animal, as he patted its dirty flank. ‘You will accompany me on adventures great, will ride with me into battle.’ The mutt seemed none too interested in these promises, and chose to nose its own leg throughout the short speech, but when [P] called it followed, hoping that this mad new master might have as much food in store as strange ideas in his head.

After being well fed and rested, both master and mutt set out the next day in search of chivalrous acts to perform. Early in their journey the pair came upon a man sitting on the ground, his hand out stretched, asking for alms. Of course, any sane person would have passed on by, or nonchalantly let a coin or two fall into the man’s palm, but [P], not being in his right mind, saw not a beggar, but a powerful Genii.

‘O most marvellous and talented Genii’, he said, ‘have you come to grant me wishes?’
‘Wot?’ said the man.
‘What do I wish? I wish…now let me think…’
‘Are you mad, man?’
’Who is Madman? Is he some kind of enchanter?’
The beggar rolled his eyes. ‘’Ave you got any change, mate?’
‘I do not carry a purse, Genii. I am Don Quixote, the Knight of the Mournful Countenance!’
‘You’re an imbecile!’
‘Hold your tongue; for although thou art a Genii I will not take insults from thee.’
At this, [P] drew his sword and Rocinante, not much in the way of a horse, barked excitedly.
‘Help! Police! This man is trying to kill me!’ shouted the beggar.
Fortunately for him, a Policeman was passing, and seeing, not a chivalrous knight, but Optimus Prime wielding a samurai sword, promptly intervened.
‘What is going on here!’ he said.
‘Good Sir fellow knight,’ replied [P], noting the Policeman’s uniform and baton, and thinking them a suit of armour and a lance, ‘this impertinent Genii hath insulted me and I must defend my honour, as befitting a noble and brave knight errant.’
‘I think you’ll be coming with me, sir,’ said the unruffled policeman, who had seen much worse than this whilst on duty.
‘You want me to accompany you to your kingdom? I must assume there is a knight’s council taking place; or perhaps you need my help in fighting some giant, who hath enslaved your beloved? Pray wait until I have taken care of this small business, and I will do my duty and aid thee.’
Our hero made ready to swing his sword, and would have cut the poor beggar in two, had not the Policeman expertly brained him with his baton. As a result of the blow, [P] fell to the ground in a daze, his sword flung far from him; he was bleeding from the head. ‘Ah, foul double-crosser! Thou art in league with the Genii! In fact, thou art probably not a real knight at all, but a vision, a trick of this so powerful magician!’ Full of wrath, he tried to rise to his feet, and so the Policeman brained him again, and gave him a number of hard punches in the mug for good measure.

When [P] came round he found that he had been imprisoned in some sort of castle tower. His head hurt and his legs felt weak, both of which he attributed to having been given a potent potion, famous for sapping the strength of the most chivalrous and hardy knights. After a moment or two [P] collected his wits, and noticed that he was not alone in the cell, for a young lady was sat on the bench beside him.

‘O beauteous lady,’ he said. ‘O Princess, did the bad knight and the evil Genii capture you too?
‘Great. A crackhead,’ she muttered to herself.
‘Why, yes they attempted to crack my head. You are unharmed, I trust?’
‘Lay off the pipe, man.’
‘Let me introduce myself, Princess,’ said [P] with a flourish.
‘The last guy who called me princess asked for a handjob and then broke my jaw.’
‘A villain! How could it be!’
‘Occupational hazard. I’m a hooker, love.’
‘Ann Hooker? I have not before heard of thee or the Hooker kingdom,' replied [P] musingly. 'I am Don Quixote, the Knight of the Mournful Countenance.’
‘What, as in Cervantes?’
Ah, does her knowledge surprise you? Can a prostitute not read?
‘Cervantes, my father?’
‘No, as in the author who wrote Don Quixote. I have a degree in English literature, you can’t fool me. So where is Sancho, DQ?’
‘Sancho?’
‘Yeah, Sancho Panza, your sidekick, your foil. You have to have a Sancho. He’s the one who you promise the insula to.’
‘Insula?’
‘Yes. An island. At first it seems as though Sancho is stupid, that he is following you out of greed. But it becomes clear that, really, he is doing so out of friendship. To some extent, Don Quixote is a kind of buddy comedy. It’s quite moving, really, in that way. Anyway, you need a Sancho, because he, unlike you DQ, sees the truth of what you encounter, he…Oh oh oh, oh no…I’M YOUR SANCHO!’
‘Friend Sancho, why art thou dressed as a lady? Are you here to break me out of this castle prison?’
‘Oh no, listen, I expect to be paid for my services.’
‘I have promised you an insula,’ said [P] with great seriousness.
‘Look, DQ, I see what you’re doing here. It’s all very quixotic. You know that word came from the book, right? Something excessively romantic. The modern world needs you, I get that. Ideals. Dedication to just causes. Ok. But have you tilted at windmills? That’s important. It’s a very famous scene.’
‘There are no windmills in the city.’
‘Exactly. And who is going to write your history? The real DQ had Cervantes. And, y’know, you can’t just ignore the fact that in the second half of the book he is famous, because the first part, Cervantes says, had spread word of his madness and adventures.’
‘Ah, I have this covered. I’ve set up a twitter account. You must follow me, Sancho!’
‘Right. And I guess you’ve already got the ‘is art dangerous’ angle covered. Uh, clearly it is. Y’know, Flaubert used that idea, or stole it if you like, for Madame Bovary. How much can art, books, whatever, influence you? It's a fascinating question. They burn your books, y’know, your friends do.’
‘They what my what now? This is an outrage. I have a pristine hardcover copy of The Man Without Qualities!’
‘Gone, DQ. That kind of book gives people unsuitable ideas. What about the stories-within-stories stuff? Lots of that kind of thing in Don Quixote.’
‘Well, this was my first sally. I haven’t got around to all that yet. But I did meet this Ann Hooker lady, a beautiful Princess. Her story ought to be told.’
‘But Ann is Sancho, remember?’
‘Stop quibbling, Sancho. And, er, your bra strap is showing, please adjust it. I will tell the most interesting tale of how Sancho met Princess Ann, and persuaded her to swap costumes.’
‘Very good. But, I must warn you, that being DQ is very likely to cause you physical harm. Nabokov called the book crude and cruel, and, well, it is violent. DQ gets beaten up frequently.’
‘One must risk all to win all.’
‘Fair enough. But, y’know, the whole thing becomes repetitious, there’s no denying that. You’ll have to do the same sort of thing over and over again.’
‘Such is life, Sancho. I would rather encounter the same wonderful thing again and again than have terrible variety.’
‘You’ve become a philosopher, DQ.’
‘I am simply a knight, Sancho, but we knights do trust in our brains, as well as our arms, on occasion.’
‘You’re very good at this, I must say. That sounded just right. Ok, but one last thing, if you have read Don Quixote then you must be aware that what the hero of the book thinks he experiences isn’t real, that where he sees giants there are only windmills, where he sees The Helmet of Mambrino there is only a barber's bowl.’
‘Ah, Sancho, of course I know that. But isn’t life more beautiful if you approach it with a noble heart, with wonder and awe? I'm not advocating that everyone ought to become Don Quixote, because to be him is to be insane, but one should have a little of his spirit in you. Isn’t that the book’s true message? Those batterings that he takes, which grouchy old Nabokov objected to, those are but the workaday world rapping you on the knuckles, telling you to settle, to be reasonable, to give up your ideals, to stop dreaming the impossible dream. Well, I tell you, friend Sancho, I tell all of you, to dream on, dream the fuck on.’

The Rarest of Gems: Comedy/Tragedy in Equal Measures

Rare is the story that works well as simultaneously a comedy and a tragedy. Come to think of it, I don't recall reading or seeing so brilliant a comedy/tragedy in a novel or film (I admit my knowledge of theatre is sorely lacking). The only one that comes to mind that most closely approaches Don Quixote, though still miles below it, was the film version of Forrest Gump.

Like Don Quixote, Forrest Gump is episodic in nature, the story progressing through sketches over time, many of them humorous with at least two tragic threads tying them all together: society would always exploit, but was never going to accept, a slow-witted man despite the fact that he was such a significant participant in history and, though Jenny loved Forrest, she would not accept him as her lover and mate until she was nearing death, raising a son of which he had no idea, conceived in their one sexual encounter. Flashback to 1994:

n  You died on a Saturday mornin.' And I had you placed here under our elm tree. And I had that house of your father's bulldozed to the ground.... I don't know if we each have a destiny or if we're all just floatin' around accidental-like on a breeze, but I ... think maybe it's both... I miss you Jenny. If there's anything you need, I won't be far away.n

I came late to Don Quixote, only reading it a couple of years ago. As most everyone knows, the novel follows the misadventures of Alonso Quixano, an idealistic hidalgo who has absorbed every known book of chivalry, which he describes as giving him an expertise on knight-errantry including the deeds, holdings, history and general character of each knight ever recorded. He believes himself to be a valorous knight-errant whose name is Don Quixote de la Mancha and sets out to right all wrongs, revitalize chivalry and live out a noble's narrative.

One cannot doubt that today Don Quixote would be committed at least temporarily as a danger to himself and/or others for analysis and treatment of potential mental disorders. He thought windmills were giants, sheep enemy soldiers and fell in love with "Dulcinea del Toboso," whom he describes as a vestal maiden with rosy cheeks, alabaster skin and flowing hair when she was in reality a strapping peasant woman named Aldonza Lorenzo who has barely acknowledged Don Quixote.

Don Quixote's "faithful squire" Sancho Panza calls him the "Knight of the Woeful Countenance." Sancho accompanies Don Quixote for most of the trip suggesting pragmatic, logical options in lieu of Quixote's fantasies unbound by reality. The droll and portly man is full of common sense but has not a grain of spirituality. He provides some comic relief by dropping pithy epigrams, such as "he who's down one day can be up the next, unless he really wants to stay in bed, that is...." He also acts as a "sanity check" on Quixote's world of whimsy. ("Is it possible that your grace is so thickheaded and so short on brains that you cannot see that what I'm telling you is the absolute truth?”).

Don Quixote is filled with hilarity but tinged always with the tragedy borne of sympathy for this man who is ridiculed and played jokes on by people who care not one wit how it might hurt him, for this man who faces long odds and tries and tries and is bound to fall ultimately under the weight of a society, then and now, which did and will not tolerate people who deviate so far from accepted norms; and, the tragic fact that the idealism of nobility and chivalry of centuries ago are no longer nearly as important (and haven't been since at least the early 1600s).^

Despite its tragic elements, the novel contains some of the funniest scenes in all of literature. In a way, and what I found most surprising in reading this classic is, the humor is nearly timeless. I've seen dozens and dozens of bits in comedy films and television shows and comic skits that are in some way derivative of the classic comedy and satire of Don Quixote.

Cervantes' paradoxical question seems to be whether it is better to view the world as it is or as it should be? Artist types would say the latter. Kafka said, for example, "Don Quixote's misfortune is not his imagination, but Sancho Panza." Emily Dickinson wrote, "Much madness is the divinest sense."

I sometimes fall into the camp of Kafka, Dickinson and Quixote, when I get to thinking how the world (and life) is sometimes just too damn sad not to block out some reality.

Then I ponder, am I so different than most today? Why do we love reading novels of other worlds and times for which we must temporarily suspend our disbelief (a form of momentary, voluntary madness) hours on end to enjoy the story, why watch movies in which we get to live a different life in the mind for a couple of hours, why root for a sports team playing a game in which we have no *rational* interest in the outcome?

Why, we value escapism and temporary madness so much that many of today's mythical figures in society's eyes are entertainment icons, media stars and sports heroes! But, I digress....




^A passage I highlighted on the tragic aspect stands out still: "Virtue is persecuted by the wicked more than it is loved by the good." I should add here that this gem applied since biblical times.

La bondad, la amistad y la ilusión de creer que podemos soñar un mundo mejor, son solo algunos de los regalos que “Don Quijote de La Mancha” nos ofrenda a sus lectores. Aquí compartiré mis emociones, pues nada de lo que diga podría sumar a la maravillosa abundancia de reseñas y estudios sobre la obra máxima de Cervantes.

Siguiendo los pasos del Caballero de la Triste Figura y su escudero, me desconsolé con cada angustia de Sancho al creer que perdía a su amo (¡qué modo cruel de simbolizar a quien en la amistad o el amor se adueña del corazón de uno!); me enojé con los imbéciles que quisieron aprovecharse de la nobleza de los héroes para inyectar su burla venenosa manifestando sus almas miserables en un circo de humillaciones; me conmoví con el cariño de Rocinante y el Rucio, ¡ni hablar del modo como Sancho quería a su asno! Admiré y me enamoré de la libertad de la pastora Marcela; otro tanto me ocurrió con la laboriosidad de Dorotea, pero sufrí un desprecio profundo contra su amado Fernando… Padecí el tonto candor de Lucinda y la alienación de Cardenio; de hecho, uno de los momentos más desgarradores de mi lectura fue cuando Don Quijote se encuentra con él y lo abraza porque reconoce la soledad de la locura en su semblante y su historia. Si sumo y sumo, me queda la sensación de que Don Quijote y Sancho son un símbolo que congrega, une y reúne a su alrededor seres bonitos a pesar de la violencia del caos de la vida y la necedad de lo humano.

¡Cuán inmenso e intrigante es lo humano! Por ello, ante “El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de La Mancha” no son pocas las reflexiones que derivan de su estructura, de sus cabriolas, fintas y ornatos lingüísticos. Tantas más son las disquisiciones filosóficas acerca de los dilemas humanos que encarnan sus protagonistas. Para mí guardo que este libro tiene el poder de la pica que rompe el hielo del corazón, pues me recuerda las bondades de la humanidad, la fe en el amor, la confianza en la amistad; pero también evoca la malicia que retenemos cuando nos proponemos hacernos infelices a nosotros mismos y a quienes nos quieren. Uno entiende por qué esta obra es un absoluto clásico universal, cuando se da cuenta de que Cervantes fue un ingenioso lector del alma humana.

The best novel of all time.

I am going to miss the ingenious hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha and and his witty squire Sancho Panza. Reading about their adventures has been a therapy to me for almost two months. I am sorry, it is over.
It is a great novel about the most important things in life - freedom, loyalty, kindness (and cruelty), friendship, insanity and common sense. It is a story about the courage to be an odd duck and often a laughing stock (some might call that insanity). But, above all, it is a story about having faith and then losing it. And losing faith means mental or physical death.
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'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!'
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'So it isn’t the masses who are to blame for demanding rubbish, but rather those who aren’t capable of providing them with anything else.'
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'I think and believe that I’m enchanted, and this satisfies my conscience, for it would weigh heavily upon me, if I believed I wasn’t enchanted and had let myself be locked up in this crate like a lazy coward'
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'It’s up to brave hearts, sir, to be patient when things are going badly, as well as being happy when they’re going well … For I’ve heard that what they call fortune is a flighty woman who drinks too much, and, what’s more, she’s blind, so she can’t see what she’s doing, and she doesn’t know who she’s knocking over or who she’s raising up.'
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'... truth, whose mother is history, who is the rival of time, depository of deeds, witness of the past, example and lesson to the present, and warning to the future'
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'Laughter distances us from that which is ugly and therefore potentially distressing, and indeed enables us to obtain paradoxical pleasure and therapeutic benefit from it.'

Delightful Volume II, but Volume I is Tedious



Illustration above: Don Quixote goes mad from reading books on chivalry. Engraving by Gustave Dore, Public Domain.

"A world of disorderly notions, picked out of his books, crowded into his imagination."

Classic Novel about a Crazy Self-Appointed "Knight Errant" and His Squire

Don Quixote Volume I was published in Spanish in 1605; Volume II was published in Spanish in 1615. They were published in English in 1612 and 1620, respectively.

This classic novel needs little introduction, as most people who aren't living under a rock have heard of Don Quixote, the mad so-called "knight errant" and his faithful proverb-quoting squire Sancho Panza, who is himself a mixture of good sense and utter stupidity. Don Quixote, of course, is in love with the "peerless beauty" of Dulcinea del Toboso, a lady who he has actually never met. Nor do the readers meet her, as she never makes a real appearance in the novel. It's not even clear she exists. She might just be a figment of Don Quixote's imagination.

Last Part of Book the Best Part

Volume II, especially the last part of it in which Don Quixote and his often block-headed squire, Sancho Panza, encounter the duke and duchess, is quite funny and memorable.

But, unfortunately, one has to slog through hundreds of tedious pages (Volume I and the first part of Volume II) to get to the good stuff.

Volume I is Largely Tedious, But Still Has Some Fun Stuff Here and There

I found Volume I to be pretty tiresome. There are, of course, such famous incidents as Don Quixote's battle with the windmills (which he mistakes for giants); and the adventure of the fulling mills (in which our heroes hear very loud and terrifying noises during the night which turn out to be the noises of mills which manufacture cloth); and a few other diverting stories in Volume I.

There is some funny stuff here, as when Sancho inadvertently goes to the bathroom while he rides, and Don Quixote remarks, "Sancho, it strikes me thou art in great fear."

"I am," answered Sancho; "but how does your worship perceive it now more than ever?"

"Because just now thou smellest stronger than ever, and not of ambergris"

But there were also such yawners as "THE NOVEL OF THE ILL-ADVISED CURIOSITY", a seemingly endless story involving Anselmo's scheme to prove that his wife, Camilla, is faithful. Anselmo involves his best friend, Lothario, in this enterprise. (At least I now know the origin of the term lothario). It's a lengthy and boring tale which contributes nothing to the main plotline about Don Quixote. I'm guessing that Cervantes included this type of stuff because his audience (17th century Spaniards) enjoyed it.

Volume II is Where the Laughs Are, Especially When Our Heroes Meet the Duke and Duchess

The book really perks up in the last third. Don Quixote, who's gone mad from reading books about chivalry, and thinks he's a "knight errant" who's job is to protect damsels in distress and help the unfortunate; and Sancho Panzo, along with Quixote's half-starved horse, Rocinante, and Sancho's beloved mule, Dapple, set off on their "Third Sally". By this time, both have become famous, almost legendary characters.

They encounter a certain duke and duchess, who, while not malicious, decide that they can't resist having some fun at the expense of Sancho Panza and Don Quixote.

So, they set up an endless and elaborate series of practical jokes involving our two heroes, including making Sancho the governor of an "island" (probably not even an island at all). There's a somewhat tiresome (but also occasionally funny) passage where Don Quixote gives Sancho endless counsels on how to behave when he is a governor. It includes such pearls of wisdom as "Eat not garlic nor onions, lest they find out thy boorish origin by the smell". Sancho lasts ten days at this post, dispensing astounding and Solomonic judgements on his subjects' disputes, before he quits. He quits when an "invasion" (staged by the duke and duchess) frightens him out of his wits and he decides he's best rid of the responsibility of governing.

They have quite a few other hilarious adventures.

Sancho's habits irritate Don Quixote. He loves his sleep and his food and he is in the habit of constantly quoting proverbs. Don Quixote frequently abuses Sancho, calling him a numbskull. But the loyal Sancho sticks with Don Quixote (except for short periods of time, as when he was governing the island).

In some ways, this book was way ahead of its time. In others, not so much...

Cervantes' Female Characters Were not The Best

Cervantes' female characters were a bore, although certainly his chauvinistic attitudes towards women were a reflection of his time and place.

I thought I would scream if I heard one more tale about a young, beauteous, chaste, and virtuous woman with romantic difficulties (these interchangeable females, who had no personalities, constituted the vast majority of Cervantes' women).

There were a few main variations on this story: the husband who tries to marry a second woman while he's still married to a first woman; the man who tries to force an unwilling woman (often married to another) to make love to him or marry him; the girl who is in love with someone she can't marry (often because her parents don't approve) and the girl who wears men's clothes as a disguise (usually to travel safely).

These got really boring after being repeated over and over.

Another type of female character is the duenna (chaperone). These are more humorous. Cervantes obviously dislikes these types and makes them dowdy, pompous, and even terrifying.

Teresa Panza (Sancho's wife) is a caricature of the peasant's wife: loud, coarse, and not too clever. (Inconsistency alert: in the audio--but not in the text--she is called Joan in the first volume and Teresa in the second).

The duchess was probably the most interesting woman in the book, but we learn little about her, other than that she finds Sancho and Don Quixote to be very diverting characters.

Cervantes and the Moors

Cervantes is far more civilized about the Moors (Spanish Arabs) than he is about women. He evidently views them as highly intelligent, cultivated, and rational people. However, Cervantes inexplicably has Ricote, a minor Moorish character, praising the Spanish king's decision to eject the Moors from Spain. This may have been politically correct in Cervantes' Spain. However, it makes no sense for a character to praise a decision that overturns his entire life.

"Don Quixote" Might be the First Postmodern Novel

In other ways, Cervantes is way ahead of his time. In some respects, Don Quixote is the first postmodern novel.

It's very meta. There are plenty of tales, novels, and plays within the novel.

And Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra gets dragged into the story (both directly and indirectly) to humorous effect. The mythical author of the Don Quixote stories, Cide Hammett Benengeli (evidently Arabic) supposedly takes his tale from a fictitious Arabic manuscript. Also Cide Hammett disparages Alonso de Avellanada, who actually wrote an unauthorized version of Volume II, basing it on Cervantes' successful Volume I, which had already been published. Cide Hammett calls Avellanada "the other author" or "that pretended Tordesillesque writer"). Cide Hammett claims he is the only true author of these tales. (Apparently Cide Hammett is a sort of alter ego for Cervantes).

There is also a sly reference to Cervantes himself. On page 85 a barber mentions "The 'Galatea' of Miguel de Cervantes". "Galatea" is an actual novel written by Cervantes. When Don Quixote's friends are going through his books, trying to discard the ones that made him insane, they come across this book.

The curate remarks,

"That Cervantes has been for many years a great friend of mine, and to my knowledge he has had more experience in reverses than in verses. His book has some good invention in it, it presents us with something but brings nothing to a conclusion: we must wait for the Second Part it promises: perhaps with amendment it may succeed in winning the full measure of grace that is now denied it; and in the mean time do you, senor gossip,keep it shut up in your own quarters."

These types of "in" jokes are very much the sort of thing we find in postmodern novels. So Cervantes was certainly innovative.

Cervantes Really Needed an Editor

I'm glad I read this, because it is a classic. But it was a chore to slog through, and it's far too long. I doubt I'll be reading it again (although who knows; sometimes books like this improve on a second reading).

Three Different Texts--Very Distracting.

My reading was undoubtedly hampered by having three texts, all of which were different. The audio's text differed from the text of the ebook (which I downloaded from Gutenberg) and the text of the Kindle edition, also from Gutenberg, diverged from both audio and ebook. (I stopped reading along in the Kindle edition because my phone has been misbehaving lately).

Lousy Translations

Also, it seemed the English translations were all pretty poor. The Gutenberg ebook was sprinkled with untranslated Spanish words and other words not commonly used in English. All of the translations were unnecessarily verbose and pompous, using elaborate phrasing where simplicity would have been better.

I have heard rumors of a new translation which is supposed to be better, but I'm not sure those rumors are correct. In any case, I wasn't able to get a copy of it for this reading.

Not Simon Vance's Best Audio

It pains me to criticize Simon Vance, as he is usually the gold standard for audio readers. But this is probably the only Simon Vance audio I've heard that I didn't completely love.I think it might have been one of his earliest readings (2004) and he read it under a pseudonym (Robert Whitfield). He voices Sancho as an English plebian and Quixote as a British aristo. I'm kind of ambivalent about this. I think I would have preferred them to sound more Spanish. However, Sancho does seem funnier and funnier as the audio goes on, so Vance's reading wasn't entirely unsuccessful.

All the chivalric romance is long dead and gone… But the travesty Don Quixote is alive and kicking… The strange ones are the fittest…

…the castellan brought out the book in which he had jotted down the hay and barley for which the mule drivers owed him, and, accompanied by a lad bearing the butt of a candle and the two aforesaid damsels, he came up to where Don Quixote stood and commanded him to kneel. Reading from the account book – as if he had been saying a prayer – he raised his hand and, with the knight’s own sword, gave him a good thwack upon the neck and another lusty one upon the shoulder, muttering all the while between his teeth. He then directed one of the ladies to gird on Don Quixote’s sword, which she did with much gravity and composure; for it was all they could do to keep from laughing at every point of the ceremony, but the thought of the knight’s prowess which they had already witnessed was sufficient to restrain their mirth.

As soon as the mocking accolade is over Don Quixote is off to fight evil, to defeat monsters, to perform feats and to save damsels in distress…

“And if,” said Sancho, “those gentlemen wish to know who the valiant one was who did this to them, your Grace may inform them that he is the famous Don Quixote de la Mancha, otherwise known as the Knight of the Mournful Countenance.”
At this the knight inquired of his squire what had led him to call him by such a title at that particular moment.
“I can tell you,” said Sancho. “I was looking at you for a time by the light of the torch that poor fellow carried; and truly, your Grace now has the worst-looking countenance that I have ever seen, whether due to exhaustion from this combat or the lack of teeth and grinders, I cannot say.”

The valorous life of knight-errant is full of hardship so every new feat brings a new sorrow.
The grandiose epic continues: Sancho Panza plays his role of the squire and governor; Don Quixote plays his role of the valiant hero and all the rest play the roles of his adversaries or allies… Adventures, quests, mishaps and show go on…

“One plays the ruffian, another the cheat, this one a merchant and that one a soldier, while yet another is the fool who is not so foolish as he appears, and still another the one of whom love has made a fool. Yet when the play is over and they have taken off their players’ garments, all the actors are once more equal.”
“Yes,” replied Sancho, “I have seen all that.”
“Well,” continued Don Quixote, “the same thing happens in the comedy that we call life, where some play the part of emperors, others that of pontiffs – in short, all the characters that a drama may have – but when it is all over, that is to say, when life is done, death takes from each the garb that differentiates him, and all at last are equal in the grave.”

Many brave knights fought dragons and won but no one remembers their names… Don Quixote fought just a single windmill and even if he failed to defeat it, everyone knows him.

6/5.

This is quite simply the greatest thing I’ve ever read.

RTC

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.

If some people find that these 1000 pages of Quixote are not enough...

There is still The Female Quixote by Charlotte Lennox

and another I enjoyed, Monsignor Quixote by Graham Greene