Miguel de Cervantes SaavedraClassics · Education·1547–1616
Don Quixote
Synopsis
Widely considered the first modern novel, Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote follows Alonso Quijano, an aging Spanish gentleman who has read so many chivalric romances that he loses his wits and resolves to revive knight-errantry himself. Renaming himself Don Quixote de la Mancha, donning rusty armor and recruiting the earthy farmer Sancho Panza as his squire, he rides out to right wrongs and win glory in the name of his imagined lady, Dulcinea del Toboso.
What follows is a series of gloriously misguided adventures — tilting at windmills he takes for giants, mistaking inns for castles and flocks of sheep for armies — as the gap between Quixote's noble illusions and the ordinary, often unkind world produces comedy, pathos and a surprisingly modern meditation on imagination, madness and idealism.
By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, Cervantes's masterpiece endures as a profound and playful examination of the stories we tell ourselves and the courage it takes to live by them.
How it reads
- Writing5.0
- Impact4.0
- Characters5.0
- Plot5.0
- Atmosphere4.0
Prose complexity 10/10
- Before reading this book, I had this idea that Don Quichotte has a deep philosophical plot, the metaphor about the windmills seemed very serious. I expected darkness, broody characters, bloody feats of chivalry (those were there but not for the enemies). Yet, this book was EVERYTHING but that, it was freaking hilarious! Don Quichotte is the leader of the cult of the delulu! The man is so unhinged, absolutely off the rails, so full of his delusions that I can't believe that he's actually a well read smart man underneath it all! Him showing signs of sanity becomes an insane event in this story. Loved this book to bits and cannot wait to start volume 2! Don Quichotte also reminded of how amazing classics can be, this was published in 1605, but it was an absolute page turner!
- An incredibly slow book. Not worth reading. Interesting idea, interesting characters, fascinating that it was written 400 years ago. Some amusing anecdotes, but an incredible amount of unnecessary dialogue and filler. A modern rewrite with careful editing would be amazing. This book took me 10x longer to read than any other book I've ever attempted, and has put me off 'classics' for a time. 'Part 2' is significantly better than the first half of the book. I read the 'Edith Grossman' translation.