I'm going to miss Don Quixote and Sancho Panza so much! They feel like old friends!

In all honesty, I didn't expect to love this book as much as I now do! My favorite stories are the ones that make me feel a myriad of emotions, which is exactly what reading Don Quixote did! I laughed at almost every chapter, felt tearful by the end, and adored them the whole way through!
This is a groundbreaking work of fiction, and I feel honored to have read it! To think that some of my favorite "classic" writers have also read this story fills my heart with joy! To think that Tolstoy, Dickens, Dostoevsky, and so many others have read it as well!!!

I wish to thank Cervantes for bringing me along on all of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza's adventures and misadventures!!!
It was quite the quest!

This book was published in two parts, originally. The first was published in 1605 and the second in 1615.
It was the Golden Age of Spanish literature and thus of any literature in the Western world. Don Quijote is the most significant work of that era and thus a cornerstone of Western literature.

The protagonist is actually called Alonso Quixano, a poor and already quite old hidalgo (nobleborn). However, after reading countless romances about noble knights, he loses his sanity and decides to become a knight-errant and thus reviving chivalry and serving his country as the titular Don Quijote (or Don Quixote) de la Mancha. Relatively soon after setting out on his poor and underfed horse, Rocinante, he is brought home by a farmer because of his injuries. The farmer is, of course, the famous Sancho Panza, who is Quixano's neighbour and who becomes his faithful squire (more like a caretaker).
While his master has his head in the clouds and refuses to see the world as it is, instead daydreaming of living a quest in a world full of fair maidens, honourable adversaries and horrible monsters, Sancho Panza might not be the brightest candle in the chandelier but at least retains his dry wit when dealing with his master's (lengthy) rhetorical orations on antiquated knighthood or his often quite dangerous undertakings.
One such undertaking is probably the most famous one that almost everyone has heard about one way or another: Quijote's attack on windmills that he believes to be ferocious giants. But that is only the beginning of their travels/(mis-)adventures. And one is more absurd than the one before.
Part 2, interestingly, was not only published 10 years after the first one, it is also far less funny. Instead, the author focused more on sincerity and on philosophically looking at the subject of deception.
Even his characters therefore know about the publication of part 1, the book thus exploring the concept of a character understanding that he is written about, an idea explored often in the 20th century.
Moreover, we see Quijote being made fun of and deceived as a cruel practical joke for the amusement of others. Ultimately, the book also ends tragically as all the pranks and tricks end in Quixano returning home and recovering his sanity before falling deathly ill and dying sad and disenchanted.

The book was the first to incorporate so many different literary styles and techniques, thus blending seamlessly fantasy and history and giving the book several layers (the author often interrupts the tale to say that the source so far recited stops at this point but that he found another that continues the tale, thus deceiving the reader by pretending the tale had actually taken place).

Unsurprisingly, the book had a major influence on other writers throughout history, as evidenced by direct references in Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers as well as Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and even more modern works such as the science fiction series The Expanse by S.A. Corey. Not to mention all the paintings, statues and other art forms depicting the two protagonists.

As can be seen by the foreword, the fact that Cervantes cited fictional sources to lend the book additional credibility, and the fact that the book is almost outrageous in places when seen from the time it was published in (a time when Catholicism ruled supreme, especially in Spain), the author was quite sarcastic. Unlike his protagonist, I don't think he had any illusions about the world while probably wishing it to be at least a little bit different.

What delighted me was how, when Cervantes called out society's hypocrisy and stupidity, he actually also took a feminist stance when showing what men expected was their due and what women were expected to do/say and how they were expected to behave. The scene with Marcela that I dedicated a status update to was just one example.

Here is the (to me) most important thing:
When the book was first published, it was generally interpreted as a comic novel. After the French Revolution, it was better known for its central ethic that individuals can be right while society is quite wrong - thus it was seen as disenchanting. Then, in the 19th century, it was regarded as a social commentary, despite nobody being able to tell what Cervantes' social commentary actually was ("whose side Cervantes was on"). Later, many critics came to view the work as a tragedy in which Don Quixote's idealism and nobility are viewed by the post-chivalric world as insane and him and his idealism/nobility being defeated and rendered useless by common reality and the unchivalrous nature of society.
The kicker? IT IS ALL OF THAT. At the same time.

I knew this would be good but I have to admit that I had no idea this would be so entertaining while simultaneously being so profound.
The reader is taken from one layer of story to the next, getting a look at Cervantes as much as his characters from the tale. At the same time, we get to see several Spanish landscapes and encounter what must have been typical representatives of society back then. The funny / tragic thing about that is that there are direct parallels to today's society, making this book so timeless and precious.

My god this was a long book and when I told my boyfriend I was reading this he tried to tell me I should read Das Kapital with him as well which is almost twice this long like no thank you. It was an okay book, I definitely enjoyed it more than I've enjoyed other classics I've picked up. It kind of reminded me of reading Candide because it had that same sort of satirical tone. Sancho was pretty amusing through out the book and Don Quixote's adherence to his belief that he was a knight was something. Some parts were better than others and I think I did enjoy part one of this a lot more than I enjoyed part two. The digs at whoever wrote the fake second part however through the actually second part written by Cervantes were pretty funny in their pettiness. I just also think the ending was kind of ridiculous where Don Quixote dies on his deathbed and suddenly he's sane and is denouncing chivalry. Felt dumb and unnecessary when the whole point of the book was to make fun of Don Quixote for his silliness in trying to imitate the stories of knights and since everything said there had been mentioned in the book at some point. I feel like I probably lost out on a lot of the word play since I was reading a translated version, though Sancho mixing up words was still included through out. I got pretty bored hearing Don Quixote complaining about Sancho's proverbs endlessly like how many comments on that does one need? Definitely enjoyed part one more for the parts of the story that weren't just related to Don Quixote and a footnote said people disliked the inclusion of things like the short novel but I actually liked them and so I missed it in part two. Just want to take a moment to say contemporary writing is definitely better than any of the classics I've read but I guess it's nice to see where the influence is coming from for all the contemporary books I might enjoy.

امان از روزی که گوشیت بیوفته دست بچه مهمونت

“Don Quixote”, I answered, and looked into almost shocked facial expressions, followed by quiet, uncomfortable giggling.

What was the question? If my friends at the coffee table had asked: “What is your favourite book, Lisa?”, and received that answer, they would have nodded knowingly, sympathetically, adding some random fact about the 1000+-page-classic I claimed to love more than the countless other books I have read. But that was not the question. It was:

“With which literary character do you identify most?”

I was not the first one around the table to answer, and there had been plenty of identification with the brave, the strong, the pretty, the good, the clever heroes and heroines of the literary universe before it was my turn. I had time to think, and to think carefully.

There is no one like Don Quixote to make me feel the connection between my reading self and my real life. Who else loved books to the extent that he was willing to immerse himself completely in the illusion of his beloved fiction, against all reason? Who else struggled to survive and keep the spirit of beautiful ideas in the face of ugly, mean, bullying reality?

Why was there such awkwardness when I said I identified with Don Quixote? Because he is clumsy, he is bullied by the brutal ordinary people who can’t stand a mind focused on literary thoughts and idealist ideas, he is treated badly and made fun of. He is so very UNCOOL! He makes a silly figure in the ordinary society where appearance and participation in shared activities are more important to social survival and reputation than reflective thinking and expression of individuality. He is off the main track, and that is only acceptable to the world if you are a strong, fighting, violent hero, not if you are a harmless, yet ridiculous dreamer.

If you can’t be one of the group, you have to be stronger, more violent than the majority. Just being different is the most dangerous, the most hated thing in the world. Still!

But I don’t think there was much choice for Don Quixote. He had seen the raging madness of the world, and made a decision:

“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!”

In the most famous scene of all, the dialogue between Sancho Pansa and Don Quixote reveals the deliberate choice to see more in life than just the mere practicalities of food provision and business:

"What giants?" Asked Sancho Pansa.
"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.”

If you only have one life to live, why choose the boredom of reality when your mind can create an imaginary adventure of giant proportions?

What a wonderful match they are, the idealist dreamer and his realist companion, complementing each other perfectly while exploring the real world in the same way Dante and Virgil complement and support each other’s thoughts while they explore the fantastic fiction of Afterlife in the Divine Comedy.

To me there is more heroism in seeing a perfect horse in the lame Rosinante, or a beautiful woman in the ugly, mean Dulcinea, than there could ever be in the strongest superhero riding the most powerful horse and gaining the love of the most stunning lady. That is a no-brainer, while it requires deeper thinking skills to see the adventure and beauty in average, weak, ugly life.

The moment Don Quixote turns ridiculous, and sad and “quixotic” in my world, is the moment before death when he renounces his ideal in favour of the mainstream understanding of Christian “comme il faut”, breaking Sancho Pansa’s heart, who, in his own, realist and practical way, understands the world’s need for characters like Don Quixote.

The sanity Don Quixote gains when he dictates his last testament is the capitulation of the tired, worn-out spirit. He has already stopped living.

Another of my favourite windmill-fighting characters, Jean Barois, foresaw the weakness of old age and wrote his testament to the world at the height of his intellectual power, thus haunting the bigot winners of his dying body afterwards with his words of idealistic power from the other side of the grave.

And for all those who smile at Don Quixote: it is much braver, and harder, to fight inanimate, mechanised windmills than fire-spitting dragons!

And: you have to have more than an ounce of Don Quixote in you to try to review this book of superlatives!

There is probably nothing more that I can say about Don Quixote that hasn't already been said. Only that among all the classics that I read Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra' s story makes me cry and makes me laugh. Not an easy achievement. Each time that I revisit this amazing book, I am conquered all over again.

For that and much more, it's of my all time favorites!

"Mother Earth only gave me a finite number of heartbeats, and I'll be buggered if I’m going to waste them reading a book like this."

(Written, unhappily at 12.25am)

I’ve read 300 of the 1000+ pages of this classic and had a few laughs because there’s no doubt Don Quixote is a tool of the highest order. I was fully strapped in for a farcical romp.

But there are periods of dense discourse about nothing in particular that seem to go on interminably, driving me to despair.

Time to bale out. DNF, no rating.

Don Quixote -- A Book Review in Three Sallies


The First Sally

The story of Don Quixote is one that plays itself over and over again. In real life and in literature, to the point where it is hardly clear where one story ends and another begins.

Manager: Customer renewal rates!

Me: Señor, are you referring to those windmills.

A story of a person fighting metaphysical monsters only he can see. At this very moment, I’m typing this review as if it’s the most important thing in the world. Meanwhile, a mere ten feet away, my boss in contemplating other things – operating expenses, renewal rates – that to me seem fantastic, the ramblings of a lunatic.

Don Quixote is raging against the death of chivalry. My own quest is to preserve that which is beautiful and sacred in the written word.

The book does bring up uncomfortable questions about the nature of one’s reading life to one’s real life. What happens when the stories you read become more real than the real world? (These days, people tend to worry more about kids playing video games or becoming absorbed in social media).

It’s fitting that the book begins with Don Quixote neglecting the matters of his day on account of books. Books are what draw him into his fantasy world and into the ideal life of chivalry.

Toward the end of the book, especially, we see Don Quixote, the fan-boy of chivalry and adventure, on full display with his knowledge of history and chivalric know-how. So much so, that I want to abandon my suit and tie and don full armor just like Don Quixote.

The old question – who is to say who is the lunatic and who is the realist? For me, the fantasy of books is necessary to validate the mundane lunacy of an office environment.


The Second Sally

The tale of Don Quixote has gotten me interested in other reality/fantasy hybrids – Joe the Barbarian, I Kill Giants, Tough Girl, The Wizard of Oz. At the foundation of these stories is the idea that there is something fundamentally wrong with the world as it is presented. Their stories are one of redemption by a lonely outsider. (Think Batman! You will see many similarities between Don Quixote and Batman!)

When I was growing up, there was an oil painting in my living room. It showed Don Quixote with his brilliant lance and shining armor facing a field of windmills. By his side was his trusty Sancho Panza (Alfred Pennyworth!). My thought was that this was “classical” romantic literature.

I actually had no idea what classical literature was. I also wasn’t very romantic. I was only in third grade at the time. But that Christmas I received a box set of illustrated kid’s versions of classical literature. And there my adventure began! Huck Finn, Wizard of Oz, Oliver Twist…

My mom, being from Cuba, had of course read Don Quixote many times in its original Spanish. That was why the picture was on our wall. And that’s also why – and this I kid you not – in an earlier house we had a suit of knight’s armor. (I don’t know what happened to it. And we didn’t have it long enough for me to grow into it.)

I wanted to read this book partly for my mom; partly to make my workday feel normal. It’s fitting that I stole 10 minutes here, 15 minutes there to read this book. It’s fitting that I neglected adult life to do this.

My mom would be proud.

Jason, a reviewer on Goodreads, writes: “I’ve discovered that Don Quixote is not a bumbling idiot – far from it, in fact. He is highly intelligent, highly perceptive and observant, and most surprisingly, and in spite of all his delusions of being a knight-errant, he is actually self-aware.” This makes me feel better about the lunacy that is my life. After all, I’m in my mid-thirties. I’m unmarried; have cultivated a romantic anti-career, and have fed my book addiction in a way that would make Mr. Quixano blush.

And yet, I am self-aware. I realize that books have driven me further and further to the fringes – like other lunatics of fantasy. And without the crutch of a Sancho Panza or Alfred Pennyworth.

If I am a lunatic, I am a self-aware lunatic. And while my writing and reading habits have made me quite poor and circumspect to managers who look at renewal rates and other such seemingly realistic fantasies, they also make me better.

Of his chivalry affliction, Don Quixote said, “For myself I can say that since I have been a knight-errant I have become valiant, polite, generous, well-bred, magnanimous, courteous, dauntless, gentle, patient, and have learned to bear hardships, imprisonments, and enchantments; and though it be such a short time since I have seen myself shut up in a cage like a madman, I hope by the might of my arm, if heaven aid me and fortune thwart me not, to see myself king of some kingdom where I may be able to show the gratitude and generosity that dwell in my heart.”

And now I find myself a king! These words – found on the Gutenberg digital library – have given me a kingdom to myself.

The mad king in his mad kingdom finds willing participants in the manufacture of passages such as these: “the reason of the unreason with which my reason is afflicted so weakens my reason that with reason I murmur at your beauty;” and, “the high heavens, that of your divinity divinely fortify you with the stars, render you deserving of the desert your greatness deserves.” Yes, I know why Don Quixote donned the armor.

To what other kingdom can these treasures be exported?

If these passages sound so beautiful in translated English, to think what they must sound like in the original Spanish. As I say these words, I am happy to read this book and think of my mom, who came from Cuba loved this book and read it frequently in Spanish.

Not Dulcinea. No, her name was just Dulce.


The Third Sally

The history of the third sally to this book review could not be found. It is thought that there were many historic deeds done during this third attempt at a book review. However, due to poor historical records, the writer of this actual book review has only hearsay. Some say that he developed a callous on his right middle finger from all the typing he was doing and had to apply for worker’s compensation or some other such fantastical concept that could only exist in the 21st century before the rise of Literary Society as we know it today.


Epilogue

The book ends with Don Quixote apologizing for all the harm he has caused and forswearing anything to do with chivalry or knighthood. It is an ending decisively against the idealism and fantastic adventures that the reader has indulged in with Don Quixote. One wonders what to make of it.

Despite this finale, I like to imagine the book hanging on a razor’s edge between proselytizing the virtues of idealism and warning against its dangers. I also imagine it questioning who the realist is and who the madman.

But first, dangers! For there are many dangers in our age. For every benign lunatic like me, there are other idealists, some of them rulers of real kingdoms living in bizarre fantasy worlds denying some realities (climate change, electoral results) while extolling their favored fantasies (media conspiracies); these people would reverse the usual order of these words as we know them and claim us of the literary society as the lunatics.

An appreciation of the relativism of lunacy, truth, fact, and other not so trivial things (artistic or otherwise) only works in their favor.

The battle is not new.

Manager: Look at these renewal rates. What do you see?

Me: Nothing. Nothing in comparison to the heartfelt tale of this man of La Mancha (Don Quixote / Miguel de Cervantes). Nothing in comparison to the tale of Joe and his trek amongst the barbarians (Joe the Barbarian / Grant Morrison). Nothing in comparison to the epic story of the girl and toughness (Tough Girl / Libby Heily). Nothing compared to my own adventures in the land of literature.

The Transcendent Yearning Space

"Creativity and desire have always been inextricably linked for me....I think this is why religion and the erotic are often indistinguishable from each other in my writing – they both inhabit the same yearning space, are both transcendent acts of wishfulness, and both require the imagination to make them function in any meaningful way. [There might] not be any difference between them at all."

Nick Cave, The Red Hand Files
https://www.theredhandfiles.com/desir...


Adventures and Misadventures

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza embark on hundreds of adventures and misadventures in this novel, but they are probably its least interesting feature.

Of greater interest, for me, at least, are the metafictional structure, and the implicit criticism of Christianity and religion.

Pre-Modern Metafiction

Way before modernism and postmodernism (which disputes the prior contribution of modernism), Cervantes created a fiction that explored (and toyed with) the authorship of the novel.

In the first of two parts, Cervantes suggests that it was an account actually written in Arabic by the Arab historian, Cide Hamete Benengeli. The unnamed narrator (not necessarily a proxy for Cervantes) finds a copy of the original work in a market in Toledo, and then commissions a Morisco interpreter to translate it into Castilian. Eventually, this translation is translated into English and then most recently into this very accessible version by Edith Grossman.

Quite apart from the possibility that Cervantes might have come from a Jewish background, you could argue that the fictional interposition of two Moslem contributors to the finished product explains the critique of Christianity. However, this might equally be a ruse on the part of Cervantes to disguise the appearance of his own religious views, as expressed in the novel.

From a structural point of view, the novel that we read today consists of two parts that were written separately, the latter of which followed (and responded to) an unauthorised attempt to continue Don Quixote's original adventures that was purportedly written under the pseudonym of Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda in an attempt to take advantage of the commercial success of the first part.

In the legitimate second part written by Cervantes, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza meet Avellaneda and various of his illegitimate characters. Fictional characters encounter a fraudulent author and his fictional sidekicks.

A Trick of the Light (The Enchantment of Christianity and Religion)

Don Quixote is consistently described as enchanted, mad, insane, or a fool and a lunatic. This is not just the judgment of the implied author or narrator, but we are told that this is how he is perceived by the entire community, which by the time of the second part includes people who have read or heard the first part of the novel. This is his reputation.

The origin of his madness is his obsession with books of chivalry:

n  
n  "His fantasy filled with everything he had read in his books, enchantments as well as combats, battles, challenges, wounds, courtings, loves, torments, and other impossible foolishness, and he became so convinced in his imagination of the truth of all the countless grandiloquent and false inventions he read that for him no history in the world was truer."n  
n

Don Quixote has read so many of them that he has come to believe that he is a knight errant, who must go on his own adventures, the purpose of which is to “defend maidens, protect widows, and come to the aid of orphans and those in need”, in other words, to right all manner of wrongs:

n
“There were evils to undo, wrongs to right, injustices to correct, abuses to ameliorate, and offenses to rectify.”
n

In effect, he is a surrogate for God, a proxy doing God's work.

Cervantes even says, "Chivalry is [a] religion."

The inspiration for his adventures is the books of chivalry he has read. Many of his adventures are comic parodies of the contents of these books. Cervantes attacks “the absurdities of chivalry" purveyed in these “false and nonsensical histories".

A fictional associate of his suggests that “this work of yours intends only to undermine the authority and wide acceptance that books of chivalry have in the world and among the public.”

Perhaps, by undermining the authority of chivalry, the intent of the novel is also to undermine the authority of Christianity and religion.



The Errant Knight (The Religious and the Erotic)

The word “errant" has two connotations, one (the more common) means to wander or to stray, while the other means erroneous or prone to error.

This might suggest that Don Quixote has been enchanted or misguided by his Christian mission to do good. Knights errant are convinced that their good deeds will lead them closer to God and eternal life. Meanwhile, Don Quixote “realized that the only thing left for him to do was to find a lady to love; for the knight errant without a lady-love was a tree without leaves or fruit, a body without a soul.”

Don Quixote's devotion to a woman such as Dulcinea of Toboso sublimates his desire and eroticism in a manner which makes it almost unnecessary to consummate the relationship (which never happens in Cervantes’ novel). The point is to yearn or “long without satisfaction".

The Enchanted Knight

The mythology of chivalry distracts the knight errant from real life, poverty and suffering. Chivalry is a fiction designed by religion or the Church to mitigate discontent and dissatisfaction. Don Quixote desires to be written about and therefore to be famous. He sees giants where there are windmills. He wants to live on in literature, in fiction.

To the extent that knights errant lose touch with reality, the community regards them as enchanted, mad or insane. Nabokov has commented on the cruelty to which Cervantes subjected Don Quixote. However, it's arguable that this cruelty derives more from religion. Chivalry might therefore be a trick of the light, “a trick and a dream", a symbol of how Christianity enchants and deludes its congregation.

Disenchanting the Enchanted

Don Quixote can only regain his reason and free himself of “the absurdities of chivalry" by preparing to die.

In the moments before his death, he says, "I was mad, and now I am sane," and reverts to his original name, Alonso Quixano. He regains his identity, retrieving it back from religion.

It’s this metamorphosis that finally “disenchants the enchanted.” Ironically, Don Quixote, the fictional character, lives on in literature. His reputation and his fame are perpetuated by this book, a daring and transcendent work of fiction.


VERSE:

I Saw Don Quixote
[Apologies to Robyn Hitchcock]

I saw Don Quixote
On the cusp of
Religion
And desire.
I caught his eye
And he caught mine.
He said, "Think and you'll survive."
I said, You're deep.
He said, "No deeper than
A shallow sleeper."
I saw Don Quixote
Outside the chapters
Of this novel fiction,
And he was very much alive.

Robyn Hitchcock - "I Saw Nick Drake"

https://youtu.be/Z2tHVzeaarQ


SOUNDTRACK:

The Triffids - "A Trick of the Light"

https://youtu.be/IFoD2LTCEmg

https://youtu.be/Uhhb3I6gYAk

got to know what the deal is with those windmills

طنز خوبی داشت، جلد دوم کسل کننده
.
امسال تنها سالی هست که خیلی کتاب‌های کلاسیک خوندم و واقعا از این بابت خوشحالم

تحفة فنية من روائع الأدب العالمي وإبداعاته...لعل المقولة التي تقول أن هذا الكتاب الخالد لا بد من قرائته ثلاثة مرات في العمر على الأقل غير مبالغ فيها ففي أحداثه المتهكمة ما ينبه الحواس ويرفع الذائقة ويزيد الحكمة...بحثاً عن البطولات الزائفة يصنع دون كيخوتة أو كيشوتة سمه ما تشاء أحداثاً لا يمكن للقارئ أن يمل منها ومن خلال صديقه أو معاونه سنشو بنتا سوف تضحك كثيراً ....إن قصص دون كيخوتة لن تشيخ أبداص وتلك البطولات المفقودة التي أثرت على عقله من خلال كتب الفروسية التي قرأها سوف تصنع إبداعاً لا مثيل له
النسخة التي بين يدي لعلها الأفضل من بين الطبعات وهي نسخة دار المدى التي بذل فيها مجهوداً يشكرون عليه ..لا تفوت