Travels of Persiles and Sigismunda AKA The Trials of..

[Gail]

The Trials of Persiles and Sigismunda: A Northern Story which is listed on the 1001 list as The Travels of ....
The Trials was written after the success of Don Quixote and published after the death of the author. It was widely popular at the time of its publication. I believe it was a popular book because it was full of various adventures and interesting struggles from kidnappings, falling off the edge of a castle, being jealous of a beautiful rival and on and on, while our main characters work their way towards Rome. Further, much of the adventures take place in the wild north which the average Spaniard at the time would have little knowledge about. The main characters are in disguise and do not talk about their real backgrounds and who their parents are until the end of the book, and in fact, other than learning more about the "true church", we are never very convinced that they needed to set out on this pilgrimage at all. The combination of buddy / road story lies within a tangled love story. Our beautiful main female lead Sigismunda, who is called Auristela throughout the book, is either courted or kidnapped by almost every male she comes across. People even fight over a likeness of her. Many of the tales are told by other pilgrims or other characters the lovers come across in their journey so we have a real feast of adventures to read about including woman who are evil (our lead is a pure virgin even though she has been kidnapped repeatedly) and wayward young men.
Cervantes displays his unusual humor and his knowledge of the ancient world throughout the book but he never quite manages to pull off that delicate balance of empathy toward the main characters even as you question their sanity that you have in Don Quixote. Also, although there are multiple interesting sidekicks of both the male and female leads, there is no one that is so stupid and so very clever as Sancho throughout the book.
It was not a difficult read but I understand why Don Quixote went on to become known as one of the greatest books of all time and this book is hardly ever read.

[Amanda]

I largely agree with Gail (will contribute to the buddy read questions themselves soon). Ironically, Cervantes believed this one to be his masterpiece. I haven't read Don Quixote yet so can't judge them together, but I gave this one 3 stars.

There were fascinating parts like the barbarian island, and the unfolding of the identities at the end (the title versus the characters did confuse me for a while not gonna lie). But also did fall flat in parts- the part about the evil Jewess witch did NOT age well for contemporary readers. As well it did seem too obscure to fully appreciate the stakes and story itself for a long time.

All of the different Islands, hijinks, and crossdressing did remind m of like a Twelfth Night, Odyssey, Aethiopica love child throughout, which was a fun enough vibe. The kidnapping and "oh she's the prettiest most desirable woman of all time!" ish did get repetitive and unrealistic though.

[Diane]

Rating: 3.5 stars


I find it interesting that Cervantes considered this his masterpiece. While it is a fun book, it pales in comparison with his more popular Don Quixote.

Overall, a fairly entertaining read with too many tangents and repetition to be a great read.