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Don Quixote

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Start date: February 1, 2024

Finish date: March 30, 2024

Discussion: Old School Classics, Pre-1915

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3rd Quarter Long Read Classic, July-Sept 2015

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3rd Quarter Long Read Classic, July-Sept 2015

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Old School Classics, Pre-1915

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Aug 10, 2015 Melanti rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, e-book, 1001-books, classics, 2016, adventure

Today, we think of this as just one book, but it really is two separate books, written in two different styles and published a decade apart.

The first half is a satire of all the chivalric literature of the time period. As such, it's easiest to understand the jokes if you've read a bit of that genre (or similar books). Anything else, and it'd be like trying to fully appreciate Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey without ever having a Gothic novel. It'd still be amusing, but not nearly as funny.

Luckily Today, we think of this as just one book, but it really is two separate books, written in two different styles and published a decade apart.

The first half is a satire of all the chivalric literature of the time period. As such, it's easiest to understand the jokes if you've read a bit of that genre (or similar books). Anything else, and it'd be like trying to fully appreciate Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey without ever having a Gothic novel. It'd still be amusing, but not nearly as funny.

Luckily, I went through a HUGE King Arthur phase in High School, so I did get some of the jokes.

It focuses on Don Quixote, who "became so caught up in reading that he spent his nights reading from dusk till dawn and his days reading from sunrise to sunset, and so with too little sleep and too much reading his brains dried up, causing him to lose his mind." And as a man, convinced he's a knight errant in a chivalric romance, he runs around and causes chaos by reacting to mundane events as if they were the magical occurrences common in those adventures.

I was a bit worried it'd feel like slapstick humor but instead it felt more like reading a written version of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".

The second half is a different story. It was written much later and rather than being a satire of knightly romances, it was more of a straightforward novel. It muses a lot about authorship, accuracy in histories, and ends up being rather meta-fictional and self-referential.

In many ways, it mirrors the first half of the book, with many situations and events inverted.

Instead of Don Quixote being the crazy one, he's increasingly sane though still too seemingly credulous of the pranks people pull on him. However, the world has become crazy in his steed. Since many of the characters of the book have read of Don Quixote, there's a trend of the characters talking to him and egging him on - just for the spectacle of watching his antics.

Most of this is harmless and in good humor. The one exception is the duke and duchess that dominate the last quarter of the novel. Their "pranks" felt rather mean spirited and far from harmless.

It's strange that I reacted so negatively to their pranks. Don Quixote doesn't seem to notice they're making fun of him or taking advantage of his credulity. And arguably, though some of their pranks do injure him, Quixote hurt far more people and in turn was hurt far more in the first half of the novel and I didn't react half as badly to that. I think the difference is intent. Quixote never intended to harm anyone - he was just reacting to the world as he saw it. The Duke and Duchess, however, don't care who they harm (emotionally, or physically) as long as they can derive some amusement from it. I didn't care for this. At all. Not funny in the slightest.

I'd give the rest of the novel 5 stars, but the couple hundred pages focusing on the duke & duchess, I'd give just 2. Overall, though, I'll say it averages out to 4. ...more

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Nov 12, 2019 Clayton Brannon rated it it was amazing

A book that everyone should read. I suspect many have read it for school. I did not till I was an old man and I think by waiting the book had more meaning for me. Great read and I suspect I will read it again.

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