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devlonmoore 's review for:
Don Quixote
by Miguel de Cervantes
“For it was his great good fortune/to live a madman, and die sane.”
I finally finished the great Don Quixote of which I have picked up and put down since 2018. At times it was a slog, I suppose because it is so episodic and loose, especially the first book. I learned that Cervantes took some criticism for his treatment of the first book and the second book is certainly tighter, as far as its movements, though still episodic. I write all this knowing that my favorite moment in the book comes in the first part in the tale of Marcela the fiercely beautiful yet nobly independent young girl. Written when this book was, Marcela is an extraordinary embodiment of women’s liberation and power (I have three daughters and when they are teenagers I hope to read them Marcela’s speech at the funeral). It’s a visionary treatise.
I was also surprised by the amount of damage the delusional Quixote does to seemingly innocent people. He is not just jousting windmills. He is not just a quixotic, innocent, amusingly half mad man. He causes some pain and some havoc and wreckage. A common comment on this novel is such, and I paraphrase: the sane prove to be insane, and the insane sane. Meaning that we should go through life as Quixote and that his virtues are affirming. I agree that the virtues, and how color one’s life, are something to aspire to but Quixote’s delusions must not be discounted and perhaps that’s one of the complex beauties of the book? Saying that, I never found Quixote to be a villain but I also never found him entirely innocent either. I can see where this charactization and comment come from as the true villains of the novel are the Duke, Duchees and Altisidora. The supposed sane. Their treatment of Quixote and Panza lend a pathos to the book and some seriousness.
The book is also wildly funny, especially the repartiee between Quixote and Panza, an example being Book 2 Chapter VII in which is just masterclass dialogue. This brings me to Sancho Panza, constantly shooting proverbs as arrows, whom I believe to be the heart of the novel and one literature’s great characters. He is complex, hilarious, cunning, intelligent in corners (so to speak) with a simplicity that is endearing. He is Cervantes’ masterpiece.
Should you read it? The books moves so much and in so many directions that it will seem fatuous and at times tedious, yet if you are curious then by all means sit down (and plan to sit for a long time and over a long time) and start a relationship with Don Quixote. The experience of Sancho Panza alone is worth it.
I finally finished the great Don Quixote of which I have picked up and put down since 2018. At times it was a slog, I suppose because it is so episodic and loose, especially the first book. I learned that Cervantes took some criticism for his treatment of the first book and the second book is certainly tighter, as far as its movements, though still episodic. I write all this knowing that my favorite moment in the book comes in the first part in the tale of Marcela the fiercely beautiful yet nobly independent young girl. Written when this book was, Marcela is an extraordinary embodiment of women’s liberation and power (I have three daughters and when they are teenagers I hope to read them Marcela’s speech at the funeral). It’s a visionary treatise.
I was also surprised by the amount of damage the delusional Quixote does to seemingly innocent people. He is not just jousting windmills. He is not just a quixotic, innocent, amusingly half mad man. He causes some pain and some havoc and wreckage. A common comment on this novel is such, and I paraphrase: the sane prove to be insane, and the insane sane. Meaning that we should go through life as Quixote and that his virtues are affirming. I agree that the virtues, and how color one’s life, are something to aspire to but Quixote’s delusions must not be discounted and perhaps that’s one of the complex beauties of the book? Saying that, I never found Quixote to be a villain but I also never found him entirely innocent either. I can see where this charactization and comment come from as the true villains of the novel are the Duke, Duchees and Altisidora. The supposed sane. Their treatment of Quixote and Panza lend a pathos to the book and some seriousness.
The book is also wildly funny, especially the repartiee between Quixote and Panza, an example being Book 2 Chapter VII in which is just masterclass dialogue. This brings me to Sancho Panza, constantly shooting proverbs as arrows, whom I believe to be the heart of the novel and one literature’s great characters. He is complex, hilarious, cunning, intelligent in corners (so to speak) with a simplicity that is endearing. He is Cervantes’ masterpiece.
Should you read it? The books moves so much and in so many directions that it will seem fatuous and at times tedious, yet if you are curious then by all means sit down (and plan to sit for a long time and over a long time) and start a relationship with Don Quixote. The experience of Sancho Panza alone is worth it.