Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by pinenoodle
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
4.0
Be prepared for an uneven book--actually, 1 book and its sequel that are now commonly published together.
The first book is the most uneven as it doesn't just tell the story of Don Quixote. Interspersed are the tales of other characters, and even a novel inside a novel. Clearly, Cervantes received criticism for that--he actually addresses how people wanted more Don Quixote and less other stuff (through the guise of a fictional Arab author and a translator into Spanish). That said those stories within the story can have value. The story of Cardenio was adapted by Shakespeare into a now lost play (and reading it you can tell why) and another story inspired the term Lothario as an unscrupulous seducer of women.
All in all, Don Quixote is as much the narrative as a crazy would-be knight as Cervantes commentary on the world around him, and critique of modes of fiction (not just chivalric fiction). In the second book he even has fun with the unofficial continuation of Don Quixote by a different author. I've seen it said that Don Quixote is a work that is hard to interpet, and I have to agree. At times I saw a point to his critiques of society and fiction, but then the message could be almost reversed in a later scene or story. Maybe hat is part of the issue with having so many stories within the story. In part, though, it feels like Cervantes was as much having fun as making any unified point.
The first book is the most uneven as it doesn't just tell the story of Don Quixote. Interspersed are the tales of other characters, and even a novel inside a novel. Clearly, Cervantes received criticism for that--he actually addresses how people wanted more Don Quixote and less other stuff (through the guise of a fictional Arab author and a translator into Spanish). That said those stories within the story can have value. The story of Cardenio was adapted by Shakespeare into a now lost play (and reading it you can tell why) and another story inspired the term Lothario as an unscrupulous seducer of women.
All in all, Don Quixote is as much the narrative as a crazy would-be knight as Cervantes commentary on the world around him, and critique of modes of fiction (not just chivalric fiction). In the second book he even has fun with the unofficial continuation of Don Quixote by a different author. I've seen it said that Don Quixote is a work that is hard to interpet, and I have to agree. At times I saw a point to his critiques of society and fiction, but then the message could be almost reversed in a later scene or story. Maybe hat is part of the issue with having so many stories within the story. In part, though, it feels like Cervantes was as much having fun as making any unified point.