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Don Quixote

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra,

Edward C. Riley (Editor)

Start date: July 1, 2018

Finish date: September 30, 2018

Discussion: The Hefty Classics

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What Members Thought

Mar 14, 2021 Laura (Reading is a Doing Word) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics-trad-and-modern, books-i-own, 2021-read

Having read this classic over the period of a little over two months I’m still unsure as to how I feel about it. I’ve spent a long time with Don Quixote and Sancho Panza and while I feel that I have grown to know Sancho, Don Q is still a bit of an enigma to me.
Driven to madness from reading too many chivalric novels - Don Quixote goes forth on various sallies with his squire Sancho Panza. The two form an unusual pair - Don Q with his delusional madness and Sancho with his shrewd realism.

It’s har Having read this classic over the period of a little over two months I’m still unsure as to how I feel about it. I’ve spent a long time with Don Quixote and Sancho Panza and while I feel that I have grown to know Sancho, Don Q is still a bit of an enigma to me.
Driven to madness from reading too many chivalric novels - Don Quixote goes forth on various sallies with his squire Sancho Panza. The two form an unusual pair - Don Q with his delusional madness and Sancho with his shrewd realism.

It’s hard to say what this novel is about. Certainly it examines the traditions and tropes of chivalric romances, it also looks at madness and it’s proximity to sanity, it challenges ideas of writing and storytelling and was very meta-referential in parts. I’m sure there’s more to this novel than I’ll ever understand but my main takeaways were:

MADNESS vs SANITY
The biggest driver of this story is Don Quixote’s madness. His delusion that he is a knight errant influences all his actions, perceptions and reactions. What’s interesting is how his conviction drives others to behave. Despite Sancho seeing reality and knowing that the windmills were not giants, the inns were not castles and Dulcinea was not a high born lady, he still believes Don Q has the ability to make him a governor. Others who meet him are drawn into playing along with his delusion. By allowing themselves to be drawn into his fantasy are they any more sane than he? The Duke and Duchess in Part Two are a particularly good example of this - they expend a huge amount of time, effort and expense in creating elaborate pranks for Don Quixote and Sancho - to what end? Is this not close to madness?
Despite his chivalric delusions Don Quixote has moments of intelligence and clarity and speaks eloquently on a number of subjects - his discourse on Arms and Letters and his advice to Sancho about being a Governor are examples of this. This examination of madness and sanity is subtle and clever and certainly makes the reader think how close the two may be!

FRIENDSHIP, LOVE & LOYALTY
Throughout his adventures Don Q is served by Sancho. Sancho is greedy, a little lazy and occasionally deceptive but he remains loyal to Don Quixote and does admire his master’s flashes of intelligence. Don Quixote himself remains loyal to his imagined love, Dulcinea. He never renounces her despite many temptations and trials. There are also many interwoven stories that deal with lovers and loyalty and always those who show their loyal nature are ultimately rewarded. These characteristics are found in many of the characters and are typically admired.

WRITING & STORYTELLING
At no point is the reader unaware that they are reading a story. The narration throughout often refers to the origins of the story. Indeed in Part One Don Quixote and Sancho are conscious of trying to find adventures worthy of being written about so they will become characters in their own famous history. In Part Two this sense of story-creating increases. There is often reference to an “unauthorised” Part Two and therefore a strengthening of the claim that this Part Two is the real version. References to Chivalric stories and poems etc are all pervading so there are nods to that preceding literary tradition.

I’m sure there’s a lot more going on here but perhaps one reading is not enough to pick up on it all.
I found the episodic nature of the story a bit same-y - moving from one disastrous adventure to the next began to be a bit monotonous. I did enjoy some of the side stories - particularly that of Cardenio - and they offered a bit of relief from Don and Sancho’s antics. Perhaps what I found most difficult was how people mistreated the pair. Often, even while realising Don Q’s madness, other characters exploited this for their own amusement. There never seems to be any comeuppance for these characters and Don Q and Sancho suffer continuously.

All in all I’m glad to have read this. I feel sympathy for Don Quixote and how others treated him. I loved Sancho and his wily nature and many proverbs. It’s perhaps one to revisit in years to come.

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Jul 20, 2013 GONZA rated it liked it · review of another edition

Questo libro è stato per me troppo lungo, la prima parte era anche sufficientemente scorrevole, ma la seconda è stata troppo lenta.
Le avventure di Don Chisciotte sarebbero comunque state la base di un'ottima sceneggiatura per un film di Tim Burton, magari lo fa quando invecchia Jhonny Depp. Per il resto sono solo contenta di averlo letto per non fare come tutti quelli che lo nominano senza sapere di che parla, capita spesso con questi classici troppo conosciuti per essere letti. ...more

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Feb 20, 2012 Girl between books rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Lo terminé, al fin! Es un gran libro, sólo hay que tenerle un poco de paciencia y no leerlo en la noche. Un clásico de la literatura, que sin duda me costó muchísimo leer, deberíamos leer este tipo de libros más seguido y apreciar la buena lectura...

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