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Don Quixote

Don Quixote

By&
FolkloreClassics
Pages
773
Published
1605
Language
English

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.

Prose complexity
10/10

Vibe

AdventurousFunnySatiricalReflectiveMelancholic
Quest
Writing5.0Impact4.0Characters5.0Plot5.0Atmosphere4.0

Genres

Folklore Classics Literary Fiction Historical Fiction Humor Adventure Satire

About the author

M
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, often considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature and is regularly regarded among the best novels ever written. His work is considered among the most important in all of literature. His influence on the Spanish language has been so great that Spanish is often called la lengua de Cervantes (The language of Cervantes). He has been dubbed el Príncipe de los Ingenios...

Characters

Don QuixoteProtagonist

An elderly gentleman who, maddened by chivalric romances, reinvents himself as a knight-errant.

Sancho PanzaSupporting

Quixote's practical, proverb-quoting peasant squire.

Don Diego de MirandaSupporting
Dulcinea del TobosoSupporting

The idealized peasant woman Quixote imagines as his noble lady.

Don Quijote de la ManchaSupporting
All characters in Don Quixote

Frequently asked questions

  • Was Don Quixote published as one book, or in two parts?

    Cervantes published it in two parts eleven years apart: "El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha" appeared in January 1605, and the sequel, "Segunda parte del ingenioso caballero don Quijote de la Mancha," followed in 1615. Modern editions almost always print the two parts together as one novel, which is how this catalog treats it as well.

  • Is "Alonso Quijano" a different character from Don Quixote?

    No — Alonso Quijano is the ordinary country gentleman's real name before he loses his wits reading chivalric romances and renames himself Don Quixote de la Mancha. They are the same man under two names, not two separate characters.

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