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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
love Chivalric literature and love its parodies as well, but dont read too much it'll make you go insane
Don Quixote' by Miguel de Cervantes is a very entertaining satirical novel! And a doorstopper, omg.
The millions of pages of 'Don Quixote' are about the eponymous character Don Quixote, who has chosen to try to live like the knights in books of chivalry which were written in the fourteenth and fifteenth century in actuality. The books mentioned in 'Don Quixote' are all real, but of course, chivalry and those kind of knights were all fictional creations.
Quixote believes these books of chivalry are non-fiction biographies. He wants to be a chivalrous knight and he is determined to make it happen! But his knightly armor and equipment is shabby, his horse is shabby, and his squire, Sancho Panzo, shabbily dressed and educated, is shabby. He does not see this truth or reality at all. It's the seventeenth century, not the fourteenth. Everyone laughs at them, not seeing or feeling what Quixote is seeing and feeling, nor is there any understanding of why Sancho has bought into the fantasy. Sancho sees reality clearly unlike Quixote, but he believes in the visions and explanations and promises of Quixote. Quixote, a fiftiesh-year-old man, rides out on his less-than horse, Rocinanti, from his ranch, determined to save maidens and right wrongs and kill giants and dragons which he believes exist.
Quixote is a noble, and Sancho is a farmer. Both of them are somewhat insane, but Quixote is also startingly very wise in giving advice and in his education, and Sancho is startingly very clever and quick-witted. But Quixote frequently slips without warning into having delusions and hallucinations. Sancho is always confused since he is not delusional, but it doesn't take long for Quixote to convince Sancho often of the truth of his hallucinations. In time, Sancho tries to protect both of them from the consequences of Quixote's delusions. Especially after they both are beaten up badly several times. In fairness, the beatings happened because Quixote destroys the livelihood of several people he meets, thinking he is fighting monsters or rescuing ladies of quality. They also meet people who speak of having suffered real tragedies of romance and horrible losses. The contrast between Quixote's self-centered fantasies and the real suffering of other characters is very stark. Most of these contrasts are made in Book one of 'Don Quixote'. Book two is different in tone and adventures, more subtle in nature. Book one is basically full of pratfalls and juvenile mean girls and boys. Both books are basically a series of vignettes, some of which are lengthy.
Modern versions of 'Don Quixote' consist of the two books which have been conveniently packaged together by most publishers today. In modern times it would have been considered a duology series. Part One was written in 1605. Part Two was written in 1615. Cervantes died in 1616 at age 68.
Cervantes is one of those author's whose biography is more fascinating than anything he wrote, imho.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Cervantes
I feel I must highlight the years he wrote the books in this novel:
1605
1615
Why the highlight? The book has been translated into hundreds of languages today, but it was written in Spanish originally. The English translation I have found to be most accessible is Edith Grossman's, but no matter which translated version you read, gentle reader, Cervantes invented the modern entertaining and fun fiction genre, imho.
I have read other early proto-novels. They often are not entertaining as judged by modern tastes formed by Big Hollywood Action movies or by those books which are approved by current publishers. Early novels often tried very hard to maintain an intellectual level of extreme erudition and education. Authors tossed in quotes and frequent references to ideas and intellectual sayings of every wise super brainy ancient Greek, ancient Roman and early Catholic and other philosophers in their original languages. Printing layout was crude, and punctuation was eccentric. Plot, characterization, and others elements of writing fiction was in its infancy. But almost all critics point to 'Don Quixote' as having changed the entire market for fiction. He also includes references to ancient books, but they are all mythological tales that he references. He created the popcorn-movie fiction genre!
'Don Quixote' reminds me of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series -
[b:The Color of Magic|34497|The Color of Magic (Discworld, #1; Rincewind, #1)|Terry Pratchett|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1407111017l/34497._SY75_.jpg|194190], book one,
as well as the 'Monte Python and the Holy Grail' movie -
My favorite scene: https://youtu.be/TnOdAT6H94s
YouTube now has a warning on this scene, so I hope it clicks through for you. I thought it incredibly funny and in the same class of humor as Cervantes uses in 'Don Quixote'.
Many readers point out the humor in Cervantes could be cruel as well as sophomoric. I agree. But I want to point out the novel was written in the seventeenth century and the Monty Python movie was made in 1975, and both are considered classics of highbrow humor that is masquerading as lowbrow trash.
To me, what readers of Cervantes liked and what we laugh at is much the same, it's only the delivery mechanisms that have changed. Reading 'Don Quixote' can take three months. Watching 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail will take one-hour-and-a-half. The messages are the same in both productions, imho. People are not only hilarious to observe, we don't see the hokum delusions in own eyes while laughing at the hokum delusions in others'.
Our myth-making vs. Reality is the running joke, and despite how some of us take myths too far, it's also about how our story-telling ways are like pebbles dropped into ponds. The ripples keep expanding outward from the original source. Each of the characters in the novel who meet Don Quixote and his faithful servant Sancho Panza are inspired or terrified or mystified depending on their personalities and situation, and observers react cruelly or sympathetically in response. Some are enchanted by the two characters who are acting like characters in a novel (who are actually characters in a novel, hehe) and create their own stories for amusement enlisting Don Quixote and Sancho to play starring roles in new fictional creations - even though Don Quixote and Sancho are unaware they've been placed into someone else's fantasy creation. It becomes sort of a fan-fiction development in Book two! And a Mobius mirror of mythmaking. Don't think about it too hard.
But all of the characters tell and re-tell the story of Don Quixote and Sancho. They all have been entertained to the highest degree, although some are frightened for the safety of Don Quixote or themselves. However, characters from all walks of life and from all economic layers and professions in the book cannot stop themselves from formulating a tale about Quixote to recount to their circles of friends or audience if the stunned storytellers are professional, like the acting troupe and the puppet show who have the misfortune to become the target of Don Quixote's insanity.
We still are telling the story of Don Quixote and Sancho in a million forums and mediums and styles, abridged and rebooted, up to 2021, so far. Ha! Love the novel or hate it, you've been intellectually co-opted by at least one of many forms of the basic story, and the message has shaped your understanding of the world. Ever hear of Comic Con? Or the Marvel or DC movies? But you think dressing up and pretending to be a hero from a comic book is dumb? Ever go to a Halloween party? Or view the pageantry of a royal wedding, enthralled and enchanted by the fairy tale trappings? And immediately decide to buy that exact dress or suit for your wedding? As if you will be, for example, a princess if you dress the part, right? Right? Or follow and try to dress similar to your favorite celebrity or hip-hop entertainer? Got a tattoo that is exactly like the celebrity you admire? Do you wear all black most of the time, or spend hundreds of dollars getting your hair cut like a movie star or music video singer you love? Aren't you hoping to BE that magical celebrity or a character they played, just a little bit? Trying to emulate some ideal or look of your hero or the movie character they acted/invented to be? Do you, for example, sometimes get the Matrix character Neo confused with actor Keano Reeves' real personality, whatever it is? Or Captain Jean-Luc Picard of Star Trek mixed up with who Patrick Stewart is in real life? Did you learn Michael Jackson's moonwalking dance? Wasn't it to have some of that glamour, that styling, of being a someone who seemed larger, better, more attractive and talented, than you? Are you crushed when a celebrity or writer turns out to be totally not heroic or in any way a cool person or a believer of what you believe? I mean, where was your head at? You hero-worshipping delusional admirer of a fictional creation?
Anybody reading this review, think about who you wanted to be like, and did you actually model yourself on that person for awhile, and was that person actually a celebrity you knew nothing about as a person in real life. I wanted to BE Emma Peel of The Avengers when I was a kid, and maybe way into so-called adulthood - a lot longer than I usually admitted to myself. Of course, truthfully? When I saw the actress Diana Rigg in interviews, I felt a twinge of disappointment. I still admired her - BUT SHE WASN'T EMMA PEEL! Omg, the heroic image I had somehow still haunting my mind and the hope I had had of being like her if I imitated her mannerisms, or if I became a wealthy upper-class British black belt jujitsu expert! Somehow. Even though I am a lower middle-class American who was an unathletic secretary, and I got winded climbing two flights of stairs even when I was in my twenties. Don't judge me. Or my having a tatoo of a dragon, because I plan on getting a real one as a pet because they just have to be real, right?
The millions of pages of 'Don Quixote' are about the eponymous character Don Quixote, who has chosen to try to live like the knights in books of chivalry which were written in the fourteenth and fifteenth century in actuality. The books mentioned in 'Don Quixote' are all real, but of course, chivalry and those kind of knights were all fictional creations.
Quixote believes these books of chivalry are non-fiction biographies. He wants to be a chivalrous knight and he is determined to make it happen! But his knightly armor and equipment is shabby, his horse is shabby, and his squire, Sancho Panzo, shabbily dressed and educated, is shabby. He does not see this truth or reality at all. It's the seventeenth century, not the fourteenth. Everyone laughs at them, not seeing or feeling what Quixote is seeing and feeling, nor is there any understanding of why Sancho has bought into the fantasy. Sancho sees reality clearly unlike Quixote, but he believes in the visions and explanations and promises of Quixote. Quixote, a fiftiesh-year-old man, rides out on his less-than horse, Rocinanti, from his ranch, determined to save maidens and right wrongs and kill giants and dragons which he believes exist.
Quixote is a noble, and Sancho is a farmer. Both of them are somewhat insane, but Quixote is also startingly very wise in giving advice and in his education, and Sancho is startingly very clever and quick-witted. But Quixote frequently slips without warning into having delusions and hallucinations. Sancho is always confused since he is not delusional, but it doesn't take long for Quixote to convince Sancho often of the truth of his hallucinations. In time, Sancho tries to protect both of them from the consequences of Quixote's delusions. Especially after they both are beaten up badly several times. In fairness, the beatings happened because Quixote destroys the livelihood of several people he meets, thinking he is fighting monsters or rescuing ladies of quality. They also meet people who speak of having suffered real tragedies of romance and horrible losses. The contrast between Quixote's self-centered fantasies and the real suffering of other characters is very stark. Most of these contrasts are made in Book one of 'Don Quixote'. Book two is different in tone and adventures, more subtle in nature. Book one is basically full of pratfalls and juvenile mean girls and boys. Both books are basically a series of vignettes, some of which are lengthy.
Modern versions of 'Don Quixote' consist of the two books which have been conveniently packaged together by most publishers today. In modern times it would have been considered a duology series. Part One was written in 1605. Part Two was written in 1615. Cervantes died in 1616 at age 68.
Cervantes is one of those author's whose biography is more fascinating than anything he wrote, imho.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Cervantes
I feel I must highlight the years he wrote the books in this novel:
1605
1615
Why the highlight? The book has been translated into hundreds of languages today, but it was written in Spanish originally. The English translation I have found to be most accessible is Edith Grossman's, but no matter which translated version you read, gentle reader, Cervantes invented the modern entertaining and fun fiction genre, imho.
I have read other early proto-novels. They often are not entertaining as judged by modern tastes formed by Big Hollywood Action movies or by those books which are approved by current publishers. Early novels often tried very hard to maintain an intellectual level of extreme erudition and education. Authors tossed in quotes and frequent references to ideas and intellectual sayings of every wise super brainy ancient Greek, ancient Roman and early Catholic and other philosophers in their original languages. Printing layout was crude, and punctuation was eccentric. Plot, characterization, and others elements of writing fiction was in its infancy. But almost all critics point to 'Don Quixote' as having changed the entire market for fiction. He also includes references to ancient books, but they are all mythological tales that he references. He created the popcorn-movie fiction genre!
'Don Quixote' reminds me of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series -
[b:The Color of Magic|34497|The Color of Magic (Discworld, #1; Rincewind, #1)|Terry Pratchett|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1407111017l/34497._SY75_.jpg|194190], book one,
as well as the 'Monte Python and the Holy Grail' movie -
My favorite scene: https://youtu.be/TnOdAT6H94s
YouTube now has a warning on this scene, so I hope it clicks through for you. I thought it incredibly funny and in the same class of humor as Cervantes uses in 'Don Quixote'.
Many readers point out the humor in Cervantes could be cruel as well as sophomoric. I agree. But I want to point out the novel was written in the seventeenth century and the Monty Python movie was made in 1975, and both are considered classics of highbrow humor that is masquerading as lowbrow trash.
To me, what readers of Cervantes liked and what we laugh at is much the same, it's only the delivery mechanisms that have changed. Reading 'Don Quixote' can take three months. Watching 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail will take one-hour-and-a-half. The messages are the same in both productions, imho. People are not only hilarious to observe, we don't see the hokum delusions in own eyes while laughing at the hokum delusions in others'.
Our myth-making vs. Reality is the running joke, and despite how some of us take myths too far, it's also about how our story-telling ways are like pebbles dropped into ponds. The ripples keep expanding outward from the original source. Each of the characters in the novel who meet Don Quixote and his faithful servant Sancho Panza are inspired or terrified or mystified depending on their personalities and situation, and observers react cruelly or sympathetically in response. Some are enchanted by the two characters who are acting like characters in a novel (who are actually characters in a novel, hehe) and create their own stories for amusement enlisting Don Quixote and Sancho to play starring roles in new fictional creations - even though Don Quixote and Sancho are unaware they've been placed into someone else's fantasy creation. It becomes sort of a fan-fiction development in Book two! And a Mobius mirror of mythmaking. Don't think about it too hard.
But all of the characters tell and re-tell the story of Don Quixote and Sancho. They all have been entertained to the highest degree, although some are frightened for the safety of Don Quixote or themselves. However, characters from all walks of life and from all economic layers and professions in the book cannot stop themselves from formulating a tale about Quixote to recount to their circles of friends or audience if the stunned storytellers are professional, like the acting troupe and the puppet show who have the misfortune to become the target of Don Quixote's insanity.
We still are telling the story of Don Quixote and Sancho in a million forums and mediums and styles, abridged and rebooted, up to 2021, so far. Ha! Love the novel or hate it, you've been intellectually co-opted by at least one of many forms of the basic story, and the message has shaped your understanding of the world. Ever hear of Comic Con? Or the Marvel or DC movies? But you think dressing up and pretending to be a hero from a comic book is dumb? Ever go to a Halloween party? Or view the pageantry of a royal wedding, enthralled and enchanted by the fairy tale trappings? And immediately decide to buy that exact dress or suit for your wedding? As if you will be, for example, a princess if you dress the part, right? Right? Or follow and try to dress similar to your favorite celebrity or hip-hop entertainer? Got a tattoo that is exactly like the celebrity you admire? Do you wear all black most of the time, or spend hundreds of dollars getting your hair cut like a movie star or music video singer you love? Aren't you hoping to BE that magical celebrity or a character they played, just a little bit? Trying to emulate some ideal or look of your hero or the movie character they acted/invented to be? Do you, for example, sometimes get the Matrix character Neo confused with actor Keano Reeves' real personality, whatever it is? Or Captain Jean-Luc Picard of Star Trek mixed up with who Patrick Stewart is in real life? Did you learn Michael Jackson's moonwalking dance? Wasn't it to have some of that glamour, that styling, of being a someone who seemed larger, better, more attractive and talented, than you? Are you crushed when a celebrity or writer turns out to be totally not heroic or in any way a cool person or a believer of what you believe? I mean, where was your head at? You hero-worshipping delusional admirer of a fictional creation?
Anybody reading this review, think about who you wanted to be like, and did you actually model yourself on that person for awhile, and was that person actually a celebrity you knew nothing about as a person in real life. I wanted to BE Emma Peel of The Avengers when I was a kid, and maybe way into so-called adulthood - a lot longer than I usually admitted to myself. Of course, truthfully? When I saw the actress Diana Rigg in interviews, I felt a twinge of disappointment. I still admired her - BUT SHE WASN'T EMMA PEEL! Omg, the heroic image I had somehow still haunting my mind and the hope I had had of being like her if I imitated her mannerisms, or if I became a wealthy upper-class British black belt jujitsu expert! Somehow. Even though I am a lower middle-class American who was an unathletic secretary, and I got winded climbing two flights of stairs even when I was in my twenties. Don't judge me. Or my having a tatoo of a dragon, because I plan on getting a real one as a pet because they just have to be real, right?
Not as funny as people say it is but kind of epic at the same time?
I think I would have actually preferred an abridged version. There were funny parts but I could have done without a lot of it.
My copy of Don Quixote was gifted to me by my wonderful high school Spanish teacher, Mrs. Coen. She and I shared a close affinity, and she was amused by my attempts to affect an accurate accent in class. A few years later, she was diagnosed with cancer and passed within a few months.
Besides my personal attachment to the book, I should also say that this is a wonderful, charming, and very silly epic.
Besides my personal attachment to the book, I should also say that this is a wonderful, charming, and very silly epic.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was a challenging read for me. I grew up with stories of Don Quixote but had never read the tale. It was more of an emotional journey than I thought it would be
Slow going with 4 1/2 page long paragraphs. But quite silly and enjoyable.
This is actually two books. The first is hilarious at times but very long-winded. The second, published 10 years later, is mostly just long-winded.
This book is hilarious. I had no idea what to expect when I started this book, but it definitely wasn’t that I would be laughing out loud.