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    Don Quixote of La Mancha
    Don Quixote of La Mancha
    Don Quixote of La Mancha
    Ebook1,545 pages29 hours

    Don Quixote of La Mancha

    By Miguel de Cervantes, John Ormsby and Ilan Stavans

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    About this ebook

    Newly introduced by leading Quixote scholar Ilan Stavans, this 400th Anniversary edition of Don Quixote of La Mancha—called the most popular book in history after the Bible and the first modern novel—inaugurates Restless Classics: interactive encounters with great books and inspired teachers. Each Restless Classic is beautifully designed with original artwork, a new introduction for the trade audience, and a video teaching series and live online book club discussions led by passionate experts. 

    Described as “the novel that invented modernity,” Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote of La Mancha has become since its publication in Spain in two parts—the first in 1605, the second in 1615—a machine of meaning, endlessly adapted into ballet, theater, dance, film, music, and television, not to mention a veritable tourist industry.
         Lionel Trilling argued that “all prose fiction is a variation on the theme of Don Quixote.” Mark Twain was a passionate fan. Flaubert modeled Madame Bovary after it. Dostoyevsky reimagined its protagonist in The Idiot. And Borges, in his story about Pierre Menard, looked at it as the gravitational center of Hispanic civilization. Milan Kundera fittingly summarized this unstoppable devotion when he said that “Cervantes teaches the reader to comprehend the world as a question.”
         Of course, Don Quixote has its detractors, too. Nabokov, for instance, maintained it was one of the cruelest narratives ever. Still, after 400 years, the book remains with us, winding improbably through history like the famous errant knight and his companion, Sancho Panza.
         The commemorative Restless Classics edition, published on the four-hundredth anniversary of its full release, features John Ormsby’s canonical English translation, illustrations by award-winning Mexican artist Eko, and an insightful, thought-provoking introduction by Ilan Stavans, one of the foremost public intellectuals today. Don Quixote, Stavans writes, is “not only a novel but a manual of life. You’ll find in it anything you need, from lessons on how to speak and eat and love to an exhortation of a disciplined, focused life, an argument against censorship, and a call to make lasting friends, which, in Cervantes’s words, is ‘what makes bearable our long journey from birth to death’.”
         The volume includes access to an interactive series of video lectures by Stavans, available online at restlessbooks.com/quixote. The videos serve as map to this restless classic, which speaks more eloquently than ever to our perennial desire to sacrifice for a dream in order to see its true worth.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRestless Books
    Release dateOct 6, 2015
    ISBN9781632060808
    Don Quixote of La Mancha
    Author

    Miguel de Cervantes

    Miguel de Cervantes was born on September 29, 1547, in Alcala de Henares, Spain. At twenty-three he enlisted in the Spanish militia and in 1571 fought against the Turks in the Battle of Lepanto, where a gunshot wound permanently crippled his left hand. He spent four more years at sea and then another five as a slave after being captured by Barbary pirates. Ransomed by his family, he returned to Madrid but his disability hampered him; it was in debtor's prison that he began to write Don Quixote. Cervantes wrote many other works, including poems and plays, but he remains best known as the author of Don Quixote. He died on April 23, 1616.

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    Reviews for Don Quixote of La Mancha

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    • 4/5
      I really liked this. And now I feel smarter. But I have nothing smart to say about it.
    • 3/5
      "The truth may be stretched thin, but it never breaks, and it surfaces above lies, as oil on water."Don Quixote is a middle-aged man from the region of La Mancha in Spain obsessed with reading books about chivalrous knights errant. One day he decides to set out, taking with him an honest but simple farm labourer, Sancho Panza, as his squire, armed with a lance and a sword to right wrongs and rescue damsels. On his horse, Rozinante, who like his master is well past his prime, Don Quixote rides the roads of Spain in search of adventure and glory.None of Don Quixote's adventures never really turn out as he would have hoped and his triumphs are more imaginary than real. He abandons a boy tied to a tree and being whipped by a farmer, simply because the farmer swears an oath that he will not harm the boy. He steals a barber’s basin believing it to be a mythical helmet, frees a wicked and devious man who has been sentenced to become a galley slave, absconds from an inn where he has spent the night without paying because he believes that he was a guest in a castle and therefore shouldn't have to pay. However, not everything that Don Quixote does turns out bad. He does manage, if unwittingly, to reunite two couples who had become estranged.Despite often bearing the brunt of the physical punishments that result from Don Quixote’s erratic behaviour, Sancho nonetheless remains loyal to his master as he endeavours to limit Don Quixote's outlandish fantasies. The first part of the novel ends when two of Don Quixote’s friends, tricks him into returning home. Once back in his home all of Don Quixote's books on knights errantry are burnt in an attempt to cure him of his madness but unfortunately it is far too deeply rooted to be cured so simply and it is only a matter of time before he sets out on his travels once again, accompanied by his faithful squire.During the intervening period of time whilst they were back at home a book has been written relating the pair's earlier escapades making them infamous. Don Quixote and Sancho meet a Duke and Duchess who have read the book about their exploits and conspire to play tricks on them for their own amusement. Whilst staying with them Sancho becomes the governor of a fictitious island which he rules for ten days before resigning reasoning that it is better to be a happy farm labourer than a miserable governor.On leaving the Duke and Duchess the pair travel on to Barcelona where Don Quixote is beaten and battered in a joust. They return to their respective homes where Don Quixote comes to recognise his folly whilst suffering from a fever which ultimately kills him.Now I must admit that I was not expecting too much before starting this but was very pleasantly surprised as I found myself on more than one occasion in tears of laughter. Likewise I enjoyed many of the conversations between Don Quixote and Sancho. I ended up almost feeling rather sorry for Don Quixote in his madness as he strived to recreate a world that never really existed. In particular I felt sorry by how he was treated by the Duke and Duchess and was uncertain whether they were merely cruel or as barmy as our two heroes. However, I also found the novel overly long and at times fairly repetitive, equally as one of my fellow reviewers have stated I hated the fact that some of the paragraphs were several pages long. Although I did enjoy it, it was a plod rather than a sprint through it. I am glad that I've read it but it is highly unlikely that I will bother to revisit it.
    • 5/5
      I finally finished Cervantes' DON QUIXOTE. It was a rewarding experience. It is a hilarious book. To travel along with Quixote, the knight errant and his squire, Sancho Panza is quite a voyage full of adventures. I could call this an adventure story if it weren't so ridiculous. Quixote decides to act out the story of the chivalrous knight that was prevalent in the literature of the time. We accompany him on all sorts of adventures which seem preposterous but he seemed to believe them. It is a fun read and i recommend it.
    • 3/5
      The introduction educates the reader of this translation of Don Qixote, that it has been abridged for the modern reader. I enjoyed it, knowing I would never have tried a book like this if were not adapted for readers today. I wanted to have a taste, or feel of this classic just for the experience of it. It is well done for interest, the narrator easy to listen to and edited carefully to give you the meat of the book without unnecessary details that the original writing style included. I would recommend it if you are not a classic purist.
    • 5/5
      One of the 5 greatest (or most important) novels ever written... however, the old "crazy-old-man-attacks-someone-he-thinks-is-someone-else-and-gets-his-butt-kicked-and recovers-for-a-week-then-repeat, got a bit old after 940 pages.Sancho's govenorship was probably my favorite in the whole shebang.This bad boy was read in the following places: home, work, Starbucks, Spain, France, Italy, Newark Airport (twice), my car, and probably a couple other places I'm forgetting.
    • 4/5
      Don Quixote starts out as a man that is obsessed with the knights of the middle ages, and reads all of the stories about them. He snaps, and thinks that he himself is a great knight. Rides out, takes a squire, and has adventures.There were many funny parts, and I did enjoy reading it. However, it does get to be a bit tedious towards the end. I have no fear of reading a 1,000 page book. But those 1,000 pages should hold my interest throughout. The last 150-200 pages had me impatiently waiting to get to the end. I would recommend it, and it is worth reading. But I did struggle a bit at the end, unlike some other long works (e.g. War and Peace) that hold my interest throughout.
    • 5/5
      The number of references to this individual who is really very well described y deadwhiteguys is truly admazing to anyone outside Spain. Yet they must truly love him and admire him and have done so through the centuries. Spain is truly a misunderstood country, far more complex than most of us understand. No, Ihave not finished it yet, but I must. I was reading this on a city bus and a girl came up and told me it was her favorite book. Never had this happen before.The pasts I can best identify with are the comment that Don Quixote would stay up all night reading, and then the chapter when the neighbors throw out his library. My daughter would really like to do this.
    • 5/5
      I've gone back to this book every few years since I first read it in junior high, and there's always something new to discover about it. I think everybody should read it at least three times in different stages of life in order to appreciate it completely.
    • 4/5
      I've owned this copy of Don Quixote for about 30 years, and have begun reading it on several occasions, but could never get much beyond the first 100 pages. This summer, bed-ridden from an accident, I decided I would finally, finally read it to the end. This time it was the last 100 pages that had me bogged down, not because they were boring, but because it felt like this book would never end. I had always assumed (based on "The Man of La Mancha" and other references) that Don Quixote's behavior, though delusional, affects those around him positively by making others see themselves in a better light, i.e. Dulcinea when treated as a lady, begins to behave like a lady. But this is not the case at all. In fact, no one changes their behavior because of Quixote. Except for his squire, Sancho Panza, people treat him even more abysmally than if he had been in his right mind. There is a lot of slapstick humor in this book, but most of the tricks played on him are not really very funny, in fact, they are mostly cruel beatings and tortures. I think the real essence of this book is not in its hero, Don Quixote, but in the displaying of the reality of living in 16th century Spain: the random cruelty, the abuse of power (the duke and duchess), the treatment of prisoners, the Moors, the false politesse of the upper classes. There is also the metaliterary aspect of the novel and its parody of romances of knighthood. I'm glad I read it, but it was not at all what I thought it would be.
    • 4/5
      I cried at the end of this one. A lot, actually. Didn't see that one coming.
    • 4/5
      The first true novel, Don Quixote, has impacted not only the literary world but culture and society the globe over for over 500 years. The masterpiece of Miguel de Cervantes blends fantasy, romance, sarcasm, and parody in such an amazing way that it has captured the imagination of generations over and over again no matter where they lived. The adventures, or misadventures, of Don Quixote and his squire Sancho Panza have made them icons for beyond anything Cervantes might have thought possible.The narrative of the events of the knight-errant Don Quixote’s three sallies is widely known, though more so those in Part I than those of Part II. However, while the adventures of the windmills and the battle of the wineskins and Sancho’s blanketing are the best known it the events in Part II that truly show the modern narrative arc that Cervantes was only beginning to display in Part I. While Quixote and Sancho’s hilarious misadventures are just as funny in Part II as in Part I, through the challenges for Bachelor Carrasco to snap Quixote out of his madness and the machinations of the Duke and Duchess for their entertainment at their expense a narrative arc is plainly seen and can be compared to novels of today very easily.Although the central narrative of Don Quixote is without question a wonderful read, the overall book—mainly Part I—does have some issues that way enjoyment. Large sections of Part I contain stories within the story that do no concern either central character but secondary or tertiary characters that only briefly interact with Quixote and Sancho. Throughout Part II, Cervantes’ rage at another author who published a fake sequel is brought up again and again throughout the narrative arc that just lessened the reading experience.The cultural footprint of Don Quixote today is so wide spread that everyone knows particular scenes that occur in the book, mainly the charge towards the windmills. Yet Cervantes’ masterpiece is so much more than one scene as it parodies the literary culture of Spain at the time in various entertaining ways that still hold up half a millennium later. Although reading this novel does take time, it is time well spent follow the famous knight-errant Don Quixote and his squire Sancho Panza.
    • 4/5
      An early masterpiece in the evolution of the Novel in Literature: Very entertaining, if at times somewhat long-winded, with an array of lively characters delving into the psychology, philosophy... the 'humors & humours' of the human existence, and a legendary 'hero' - Don Quixote - who tilts at much more of humanity's foibles than just windmills.
    • 5/5
      The idea of the novel starts here. This is the source of the modern novel for many. While it remains the epitome of story-telling its fame has also led to the coinage of such terms as "quixotic" and others. Influential beyond almost any other single work of fiction, the characters through their charm and uniqueness remain indelible in the memory of readers.Don Quixote is one of those books whose influence is so far-reaching as to be almost ubiquitous, like The Odyssey, or the Bible. And like the Bible or Homer’s epic, it is more often talked about than read. But my conclusion upon reading it is to recommend to all: read it and enjoy the stories.
    • 5/5
      Can innocence only exist in a past long forgotten? What are the dangers of reading books? What is madness? In his renowned book, Miguel de Cervantes deals with these questions and more as he takes us along on the journey of Don Quixote de La Mancha and his faithful squire, Sancho Panza.
    • 1/5
      I tried, I really did. Just could not finish it. There were some funny moments, but after struggling to get 1/3 of the way through, I gave up.
    • 4/5
      who knew that this book is so funny. it is pure slapstick comedy. several times i was laughing out loud. brilliant book cinsudering that is thr first novel ever written. lots of insight in the live of the peolpe of the time. this translation is very readable and has a nice flow.
    • 4/5
      It's been 20 years since I've read Don Quixote, so I was due for a refresher. This was the perfect format. The art wasn't ground-breaking, but it was fun, and the story fits the episodic nature of comics perfectly. This is worth the read if you need a Don Quixote refresher, or if you just don't want to tackle it in large novel form.
    • 5/5
      This is quite the amazing tome, and always a pleasure to read whenever I take the time to do so. The world's true first modern novel, the (mis)adventures of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza will delight, instruct and make you laugh even after 600 years (and yes, you will chuckle at a few of the naughtier bits!) But there is something that is so endearing about our hero and his quest to become a knight that always will resonate with me every time I read. I think it is because Don Quixote is a reader like us, and as all of us wish we could imitate the heroes that we see in literature (as well as other forms of entertainment well after Cervantes' time such as film, drama and television,) we have no choice but to empathize with our wayward knight as he travels across the Spanish countryside in his quest to become like his idols. We readers all too well know how the power of the written word enchants us, and so we can't help but understand when Don Quixote, the fellow reader, wants to live out the stories of his own books...or perhaps, create his own tale!Comedy, adventure, romance, and sadly, a little realism at the end for a dose of tragedy - - Don Quixote really has it all, and is the perfect introduction for those who not only want to read, but to read well. If this book can't receive 5 stars, what will?
    • 3/5
      I have a feeling I would have liked Don Quixote a lot more in some other translation. I've wanted to read it for a while, but this translation (Wordsworth edition, P. A. Motteux) just didn't work for me. I didn't actually finish the whole thing, because I really, really didn't like the translation. One day, I will find a translation I prefer and have another attempt at it.

      I don't really feel like I get to write a proper review about the book now, but I'll jot down the impressions I got. I did get about halfway through, at least. The translation was a problem for me because it was very dry and dated. I feel like when you're translating books, the point is to make them readable to a new audience. Obviously, Cervantes shouldn't read like Stephen King, but to make the book accessible, it shouldn't read like a textbook. I feel like maybe the translation is too literal. It doesn't help that in this edition the writing is tiny and cramped together. I had a look at the Penguin edition at one point, and I seem to remember it being easier to look at, and the translation a little easier -- although of course I only read a couple of pages.

      In terms of the story, I love it. It's become so much a part of cultural background that it's a little ridiculous not to ever try it. I mean... "tilting at windmills", anyone? It is funny how early in the book that most famous part happens. I found the book rather tedious to begin with, but it was actually somewhat easier when I got to the story of Cardenio -- partly because I've read a book just recently that focused on the Cardenio story and Shakespeare, and that had been what prompted me to actually buy Don Quixote. At that point, I feel, the story does get easier, but I really couldn't cope with the translation anymore.

      I love some of the scenes and ideas, and Quixote's delusions, but it's kind of difficult for me because I get so embarrassed for delusional characters. It makes me rather uncomfortable. I also have a bit of difficulty with books that meander about and have so many stories-within-the-story, without much of a driving plot themselves, but my main problem was that I couldn't get into it and reading it felt like an awful drag.

      Please note that my rating is not for the book as a whole, nor the book in general, but for this specific edition.
    • 4/5
      This book can be read and interpreted from so many perspectives, it's almost difficult to categorize. To call it a classic seems accurate, if unimaginative. I found myself torn when it comes to Don Quixote himself, between feeling pity for someone with such a skewed vision of the world, and being envious of that self same vision. Freedom of thought isn't a trait as much as it is a skill. As for Pancho, such unquestioned loyalty is enviable. To have such blind faith in someone, that you will always be ok if you remain with them, to fight for a cause, side by side with a friend, is indeed a noble calling, and requires a selflessness few possess. I think "insanity" is an oversimplification, and the only box these two could possibly fit within, are the covers of a book.
    • 5/5
      I read it in translation, so I don't know what a difference that might make. Many parts of this are still hilarious after centuries, some scenes are moving, some magnificent. Talk about iconic? Tilting at windmills, Sancho Panza, Dulcinea del Toboso, a man made mad by reading too many books of chivalry... Its second part even pokes fun at itself--17th century metafiction! If it doesn't get the full five stars, it's because it does have stretches I found dull and pointless and meandering. Just felt at times the joke was extended far too long, with one incident after another repeating itself: Quixote goes on a rampage due to his delusions of chivalry. Victim of his outrage beats him up. Rinse. Repeat... But this is one of the earliest novels, at least in the Western tradition, and still one of the greatest and influential in the Western canon--and for good reason.
    • 2/5
       -I really tried to like this one -it's too deep or too old (younger than the Oddyesy) or too Spanish (Lorca is Spanish) or just boring -maybe later, maybe I need to take a class
    • 4/5
      Reading Volume I of Don Quixote has been a bit of a challenge. Not because it's hard to understand, but because there are so many stories within the main story that it bogs it down for me. I kept putting it down for days or weeks at a time, and didn't really look forward to picking it back up. It's funny and entertaing, just long. I think I'm going to try to listen to Volume II on audio.
    • 2/5
      Although I tried to like Don Quixote, it reminded me too much of the slap-stick humor of Gilbert & Sullivan or the 3 Stooges. Worth reading once to understand references found in other material, but definitely not one of my favorites.
    • 5/5
      A brilliant translation! Turns what has been one of the most convoluated translated pieces into something easily digestible.
    • 4/5
      What a long book. It's a good read and worthwhile, but also a thousand plus pages of sometimes slow going (due to the subtlety of things to catch and understand rather than boredom). Quixote is a self-proclaimed knight-errant, basing his character and his actions on a time that has passed and never actually existed in the way represented by chivalric fiction.His squire, Sancho Panza is the most dynamic character, letting his simple wisdom come out along the way. Though Sancho is influenced by Quixote, the former influences the latter more. This is expressly seen in Quixote picking up Sancho's habit of littering his speech with proverbs and metaphors. It is more subtly represented by his having some common sense toward the end. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra lived some of the adventures in the book. As a crusader, he was captured by Turks and held for ransom. His first book was used by another author as the basis for a fake second part, leading Cervantes to frequently mock the counterpart throughout his own sequel. Quixote even defeats a faux version of himself. The book references a lot of phrases that one might have thought to be born at a later date. Cervantes himself is sometimes thought of as the Spanish equivalent to Shakespeare. Both of them died on the same nominal day, April 23, 1616, though Shakespeare actually died 10 days later, due to the English calendar being still unreformed at the time. Quixote was a tool for putting chivalry in a modern context. Quixote had read every chivalry book (Amadis of Gaul is referenced most frequently, as is Lope da Vega) and Cervantes referred to quite a few of them. Frequently, the chivalrous deed resulted in a worse situation. Examples include Quixote admonishing a master not to beat his servant, only to have invoked a later subsequent beating. Quixote also frees several suffering men who turn out to be criminals. Just before his death, Cervantes was proclaimed a "tertiary of St. Francis." Quixote compares the Iron age to the previous Golden age, seeing the latter as being a time when men lived freely off of what the earth easily offered. There was no need to open the "bowels" of the land with a plow and maidens could roam freely, thinly clad, without having to worry about the affront of men. That is how chivalry is portrayed. (Compare that to Hobbes' description in Leviathan. Cervantes seems to draw from Chaucer or some of the same stories - the magic horse, etc.)
    • 4/5
      Be it the last great Romantic novel, or the first great work of modern Western Literature, Don Quixote blurs the line between these two eras, parodying, satirizing, and waxing philosophic all the way.Don Quixote, arguably the most influential Spanish work of literature, is a tale told in two volumes, published a decade apart. Within this work, the ingenious hidalgo, Don Quixote de La Mancha, goes slightly mad after a little too much reading and not enough eating or sleeping (haven't we all been there...), and takes it upon himself to perform great feats of chivalry in the name of his unwary love, Dulcinea.Joined by his dimwitted sidekick, Sancho Panza, the two embark on quests and adventures, great and small. Quixote's niece wishes to get her uncle back and sane, which she and her accomplices team up to do, all the while thwarting Quixote's attempts at great acts of chivalry.A great work by any means, albeit a thick one. Recommended for anyone who has had to attack windmills, either figuratively or literally.
    • 5/5
      The first novel, and still amazingly fresh. Well worth your time.
    • 5/5
      Often called the most influential work of Spanish literature, Don Quixote is another classic novel that I've always meant to read but never made the time. Nearly two decades ago while living in a Spanish speaking country, I picked up a Spanish copy of Don Quixote with the plan to read the book as a way to reinforce my language studies. At that time I only made it through about 30 pages. Interestingly, I felt like I had read a sizable portion of the overall book. The copy I had purchased was only about 130 pages so I figured I'd read about one-fourth and promised myself that I'd eventually go back and finish. What I didn't know was that the Spanish copy I had purchased had been very significantly abridged and summarized and was not a true representation of the overall heft of this story. I recently picked up an English copy and found it weighing in at just under 1000 pages of text with another 50 or so pages of end notes and about 20 "roman numeral" pages of introduction prior to the story. I was shocked and at that point decided that I'd do better to tackle the book in English rather than returning to the Spanish knowing that it would take me at least double or triple the effort to read that many pages in Spanish given the slightly antiquated language and abundance of unfamiliar terminology.So I dove headlong into reading Don Quixote. I found out that the English volume contained two "Parts." Evidently the first part was published by Cervantes in 1605 and the second part was published as a sequel 10 years later in 1615. Apparently about 8 or 9 years after the successful publication of the book, an unidentified author wrote and released an unapproved sequel to the story. This anonymous author directly insulted Cervantes in the text and blatantly modified the character, behavior and motivations of the central characters of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. It's unclear exactly when Cervantes started writing his official sequel but he was definitely spurred on by this derogatory piece of literature defaming his own story. In the official "Part 2" of Don Quixote we have some very over-the-top meta fiction in which all of the characters are familiar with the first official book as well as the spurious unauthorized sequel. There are numerous sequences of dialog between characters where they discuss the unauthorized book and condemn it as slanderous drivel. Don Quixote is especially offended and wants to do all he can to make the world know of the false nature of this second book and the true nature of himself and his adventures.As is likely the case of most readers approaching Don Quixote, I didn't know a lot of the details of the overall story. Naturally I'd heard about the "tilting at windmills" scene through countless allusions elsewhere. And I've long been a fan of the musical "Man of La Mancha" and so I knew some general story aspects from that as well. Certainly not enough to know the entire 1000 page story but I knew that Don Quixote was a man who read a lot of fantastic literature about knights and chivalry and somehow got it into his head that not only were all the stories real but that he was called by divine right to be one of these knights and to ride into the world righting wrongs and fighting for justice. He has sworn his heart to the lovely Dulcinea, also a figment of his troubled mind…a conglomeration of a real woman he knows and a fantasy maiden he idealizes. He takes his friend and neighbor Sancho Panza as squire and the two of them set out into the world looking like the most pathetic knight and squire you can imagine.Most of the story in Part One focuses on a wide variety of adventures showcasing just how entrenched Don Quixote is in his own personal fantasy as well as how truly inept he is at being a knight. Still, through a large amount of luck and with a large amount of mocking and derision, he manages to come off victorious in a number of very strange situations. He is convinced that an evil enchanter is working to block his way and thus when things do go wrong for one reason or another or when his eyesight drifts closer to reality than fantasy, Don Quixote is quick to excuse any glimpses of reality as evidence of interference from this vile enchanter. In the meantime, Sancho Panza sees the world clearly but rides along very loyally beside his friend and master in the hope of obtaining some part of the fortune. As the story went on I tried to decide just how far Sancho was drawn into the fantasy of Don Quixote. Sancho could certainly see the world for what it was and he ended up getting some bad scrapes and beatings as a result of his master's behavior. And yet he wandered along through the adventures in the hope of some reward. I think he partly believed Don Quixote's madness as truth but part of him also acknowledged that Don Quixote was likely a little bit crazy. In which case what does that say about why Sancho sticks around? He constantly says it's because he hopes to gain fortune and become governor of an island, but I wonder if there is a part of him who knows Don Quixote is crazy and he sticks around in an effort to help protect him or at least be comfort to him.As Part One goes on, friends and family from Don Quixote's village come up with a variety of plans to try and bring Don Quixote home and to cure him of his madness. These plans end up just as zany and outrageous as some of Don Quixote's "normal" adventures. In the end, they finally do manage to bring him home for some time so he can rest and heal after many tribulations. But he does eventually sally forth again and thus begins Part Two.As I mentioned above, Part Two has a lot of meta-fictional elements in that it seems that the larger part of the world has already read Part One and is already very aware of who Don Quixote is and what he is doing. Even though Part One made it rather clear that Don Quixote didn't have all of his wits about him, some of the reading public treat him as a true knight errant and are overjoyed to meet him and hear about his ongoing adventures. More frequently however, the people who have read his story know and understand that he is a little off-kilter and they decide to take advantage of both he and Sancho. They treat them as though they truly are knight and squire and they set up fantastic adventures for them all for the purpose of entertaining onlookers who are in on the joke. Even though the scenes often get outrageously funny there is a tragic sense to them in that the central players in the scene are being grotesquely taken advantage of for the sake of amusement. That concept in itself seems like an interesting commentary on just what constitutes entertainment. It didn't seem quite as tragic to laugh at Don Quixote in part one when his fantasy and imagination got him in trouble. But in part two when he embarks on similar adventures prodded by people who know as much as the reader, it feels a little wrong somehow.Part Two seems to focus a lot more on developing the characters of Don Quixote and Sancho in terms of a more philosophical ilk rather than the first part which made some various political and social commentary but seemed largely invested in having a rollicking adventure at the expense of a madman. I found that I liked some of the adventures and escapades of Part One more than the second part but overall I found Part Two more thoughtful and interesting. On the whole I felt like they made a wonderful counterpart to one another and should definitely be read together.Overall I really enjoyed reading Don Quixote even though at times I felt very lost and a little bogged down. There are a lot of political, social and literary references throughout the book, some of which had endnotes for me to reference and others did not. There were many very wordy sections filled with commentary on life and virtue and the nature of everything under the sun. These segments usually worked to break the flow of reading for me and left me a little stuck on that section as I tried to digest what was being said and work it into the overall message. There were many great passages that were absolutely brilliant in terms of observation as well as just great turns-of-phrase.Having finished the novel, I feel like I have completed a major achievement. And yet at the same time, I feel like I only barely scratched the surface of this book. There was just so much meat to be found in every chapter that I felt very overwhelmed and often just "plodded through" to make sure I was making progress. I would love to one day take a course devoted to studying this novel and dissecting some of the major themes and passages. I have no doubt that this book could fill an entire course or more and still leave plenty left untouched.To those thinking about reading this book alone, don't be daunted by its length or content. It is definitely something that can be completed. At the same time I would suggest that if you have access to anybody with deeper insight into the text, it would certainly not go amiss to ask them four some suggestions and pointers to help direct your reading. I would have loved some outside insight to help guide me through different passages. For now, the book returns to my bookshelf. The story and characters will run through the back of my mind for years to come and I hope that someday I can take the book off the shelf and dive into deeper study of this remarkable work of art.****4.5 out of 5 stars
    • 5/5
      My wife asked me how this was, and I told her it was really, really great and that I really looked forward to reading it and so on. She said "Well, it's a 'classic,' right?" Well, yes. But there are many, many classics that I've read and have no intention of reading again, or that I couldn't pick up and read a chapter or two in bed. There are very few classics that make me laugh and cry at the same time.

      There are very, very few classics which can stand with both Chaucer and Sterne.

      That fun stuff aside, Quixote must also be one of the great litmus tests in literary history. Once you can answer the question "what do you think about the Don?" you can probably also answer the question "what do you think about literature?" Gabriel Josipovici argued that DQ is a disenchantment of *all* idealism, and thus a founding moment in (his understanding of) modernism. You could easily read the book as an attack on any fictional work at all: it misleads you, it lies to you, it turns you into a lunatic.

      But if, like me, you're a soft touch, you can equally well say that, although the narrator of DQ is always talking about how the one thing s/he wanted to do in this book is to convince you not to read chivalric romances, because the more 'truth' there is in a book the better, the point of the book is in fact that the narrator is wrong. If s/he wasn't wrong, DQ wouldn't have the cry/laugh effect I noted above. And it turns out that the characters have a much better grasp of the way we use fiction than the narrator does. The Don might be a little bit nuts, but even his craziness is preferable to a world in which telling stories is thought to be 'wrong,' the position he ends up taking just before he dies. We readers might be as mad as Quixote, and as mad as the Duke and Duchess who play such tricks on him (p 956). But as Don Antonio says, "Don't you see, sir, that the benefits of Don Quixote's recovery can't be compared with the pleasure that his antics provide?" (930) Or as Don Quixote has it, "to tell jokes and write wittily is the work of geniuses; the most intelligent characters in a play is the fool, because the actor playing the part of the simpleton must not be one." (507)

      Frankly, I'd much rather build or read a good book than explain why all building and reading are for the birds. My pomo professors would be appalled.

    Book preview

    Don Quixote of La Mancha - Miguel de Cervantes

    York

    Restless Classics

    Interactive Encounters with Great Books

    and Inspired Teachers

    As you read this edition of Don Quixote of La Manchasymbol. This signals a linked video lecture taught by Ilan Stavans. Access the videos by either clicking on the symbol or by visiting www.restlessbooks.com/quixote, and follow the instructions on the page. There, you’ll also find information about four live online book club discussions that will take place in the months following publication.

    Cervantes’s masterpiece—called the most popular book in history after the Bible and the first modern novel—inaugurates Restless Classics: a series of great books from the past that still speak to our time and place, and especially, to our restlessness. In addition to their original artwork and fresh introductions, each classic brings the classroom experience to the reader with accompanying online teaching videos and live book club discussions led by passionate experts. We hope you’ll join us in this interactive reading journey.

    Introduction

    Ilan Stavans

    Through others we become ourselves.

    —Lev S. Vygotsky

    1. The Spell

    I have honestly lost count of how many times I have read Don Quixote of La Mancha. The first time was in my native Mexico City, in my late teens. I didn’t much like it: it seemed long and uncontained, its language stilted, even arcane. It was about an idealist ready to take on the world and realize his dreams. I was an idealist myself, but I couldn’t sympathize with the travails of the protagonist. I probably didn’t finish it, and if I did, it was after declaring my displeasure at every turn, complaining to those who would listen that it was an outdated classic that contemporary readers wouldn’t really find useful anymore. I even inserted a handful of marginalia about its repetitiveness, its unruliness. I know because I still have that precious debut copy in my library.

    Maturity is about coming face-to-face with our own limitations, about becoming patient with ourselves. Sometime in my mid-thirties, after telling a friend I would never go back to Don Quixote, I suddenly realized I was wrong and, as if under a spell, felt the urge to reopen the book. A more assured, less gullible reader, I franticly devoured it in a couple of sleepless sessions. Since then, I have dutifully returned to Cervantes’s novel in periodic cycles, each time sensing anew its sheer magic. Whenever I’m back the book appears to me a different book, with nuances—a hidden adjective, a turn of phrase—I hadn’t noticed before. Its pages are fluid, inexhaustible, growing as I grow. I have lectured on Don Quixote, I have written about it, and I have taught it, which gives me enormous pleasure, for it is I who now puts it on the lap of a young generation, knowing perfectly well that, just like the earlier version of me, the young love to rebel. I must convince my students of the merits of the book, prove to them that because it spoke to my generation and to those before, it is likely to speak to theirs as well.

    A classic is a book that waits for us until we are ready, a book that chooses its readers. These volumes don’t want to be read by just anyone but the right reader at the right time. Don Quixote is a prime example. Ask around and you will find out how many people stumbled along the way, like I did when I was young. You will also discover that those who finish it are radically transformed. This is a book for all seasons. It feels to me as if it has always been needed as a way to mend the world, perhaps today more than ever, modernity being both a blessing and a curse, as our sense of self undergoes heavy pressure to conform, to lose its uniqueness.

    Now that I am, like the book’s protagonist, Alonso Quijano, in my mid-fifties, the plot seems to me about a bored, pathetic old man who refuses to grow up. And about a diehard reader who endlessly consumes second-rate literature, which, in the late Renaissance, was what chivalry novels were. And about an inveterate dreamer who, in middle age, knows that dreams, if unattended, have the tendency to sour. There is a haunting poem by Langston Hughes, a poem I love called Harlem, that strikes me as getting to the very essence of the novel. In it Hughes asks, What happens to a dream deferred?/Does it dry up… Or fester like a sore?... Or does it explode?

    Dreams do explode. Don Quixote is proof of it. Quijano, out of restlessness, becomes Don Quixote. He can no longer sit tight, passively reading books. He is ready to go out and conquer the world. That abrupt decision, in my eyes, makes him admirable: finally, he is ready to live up to his full potential, to take command of his actions, no matter how wretched they might be.

    What I like most about Don Quixote is its imperfection. I wasn’t wrong in my teens about the sloppiness of the writing; it is just that my attitude was too pedantic. It is, unquestionably, a defective narrative. Cervantes is often criticized as a numb and careless stylist. Aside from the countless typos in the first edition, which subsequent editions mercifully corrected, there are all sorts of errors: for instance, Sancho Panza’s donkey disappearing without a trace at one point, only to reappear later, or the name of Sancho’s wife, Teresa Panza, constantly changing, as if the author forgot what to call her.

    Worse perhaps is the feeling one gets—I do, at least—that Cervantes is often falling asleep at the wheel, that he wants to stubbornly fill pages. Although this isn’t a flaw per se, the First Part and the Second Part, published a decade apart (the first in 1605, the second in 1615) at times feel as if they are unrelated siblings, the first maybe written tempestuously, the second more relaxed and philosophical, if not more fatalistic. Furthermore, I love all this clumsiness, I love the way things appear to be clogged up. It reminds me of my own ineptness. The business of classics being perfect books is baloney. They are as defective, as inadequate as everything else in the universe. Careful readers see these flaws as reflections of their own frailty. That, I suspect, is why audiences adore Don Quixote himself: because he is awkward, pitiful, inchoate, seeking excellence but failing in the process. The knight’s charm is to be found in his folly. Imperfection is a feature of our universe, and this classic is distinct because it both deliberately and haphazardly replicates that feature.

    The book came out during the late Renaissance, a time of resistance to the Counter-Reformation in Spain. Cervantes was a devotee of Erasmus’s In Praise of Folly, perceived as dangerous by the Holy Office; its ideas promoted a critical, defiant view of the ecclesiastical hierarchy and were credited for igniting a fever of anti-clericalism. Don Quixote is, at its core, not just an irreligious but also even an anti-religious book because it doesn’t talk about sins or embrace any type of eternal redemption. Still, in my eyes it is book about faith of another sort: it calls readers to sacrifice for a cause—any cause, just as long as one is passionate about it.

    This edition celebrates the four-hundredth anniversary of the release of the Second Part of Don Quixote. The endurance of this book is nothing short of astonishing. The shelf life of an average book is relatively short: a month, a year with luck. Four centuries is more than proof of durability. Marketers and publicists can’t even contemplate such longevity. It is impossible to imagine the millions who have converged on its pages—first in Spanish, then in almost all the languages in the world.

    2. The Real Thing

    I don’t often think about Cervantes when reading Don Quixote, and when I do it feels like a distraction. Is it really important to know who the author of a work of art is? Doesn’t the work strive to have a life of its own, independent from its creator? Miguel de Unamuno believed Cervantes was unworthy of his book, a second-rate author behind a first-rate work. And Nabokov panned him as an unconvincing realist novelist (in one of his lectures on the book, he talked about how Cervantes had no sense of geography). But I’m talking of something even more extreme. Do we really need him to understand his creation? We do, because no matter how much we wish it, as Parmenides stressed, nihil fit ex nihilo, nothing comes from nothing.

    There is only scattered information about Cervantes’s life. Born in Alcalá de Henares in 1547, Cervantes fought as a young man in the Battle of Lepanto, in which the Spanish and a coalition of southern European Catholic maritime states fought the Ottomans. Cervantes lost use of his left arm during the incident, earning himself the nickname "el manco de Lepanto," the one-armed man of Lepanto. In the novel, there is a chapter in which Don Quixote, offering a speech to Sancho, mulls over whether the pen is mightier than the sword. Although it is undeniably Cervantes’s writing and not his soldiering that cemented his place in history, the knight comes out in favor of the sword, a fact that always seemed anachronistic to me, even when I know well that a military life in Spain then was deemed far more admirable than one devoted to literature. It is anachronistic today as well—or at least I hope so, although, given the state of our world, I acknowledge I am in the minority.

    Upon his return home from time spent in Italy, Cervantes and his brother were captured by the Turks and imprisoned in Algiers. In Don Quixote there is a self-sufficient novella, The Captive’s Tale, about a man who suffers the same fate. Cervantes held a position as a tax collector, among other jobs. He spent some time in jail. People have the mistaken idea that this was because of his intellectual activities, but in truth he had mishandled funds. He had an out-of-wedlock daughter and married a woman almost his daughter’s age. Although Cervantes was, in addition to being a novelist, a poet and a playwright, he excelled in neither discipline. Among other items, he left behind a pastoral novel and a series of short narratives known as Exemplary Novellas. Had his masterpiece not been written, we would likely consider him a minor figure of El Siglo de Oro, the baroque Golden Age of Spanish literature, or otherwise not remember him at all. Luckily (for him but, mostly, for us), he found success in his old age. The First Part of Don Quixote was published when he was fifty-seven.

    Again, none of this might appear crucial to understanding the novel—which, when it came out, was an instant success—yet it is indispensable to appreciating its essence. Maybe Cervantes’s personal failings underscore the enormity and unexpectedness of the book’s durability. Maybe his poverty and desperation to make money help explain why the narrative is so entertaining and seemingly geared toward mass appeal. It took just a few years for about 1,500 copies to sell—a number that may seem meager by contemporary standards but was at that time, with illiteracy rampant, quite significant. There are historical records showing that people constantly talked about Don Quixote and Sancho, and even dressed up like them. Although the Holy Office of the Inquisition forbid novels in the Americas, we know that during the 1630s copies circulated in Mexico and Peru, the two epicenters in Spain’s colonial domain.

    Most people in the Spanish-speaking world affectionately refer to Cervantes’s novel as El Quijote. The reasons are manifold: it is the book of books, the center of gravity around which Hispanic civilization rotates. But the appellation also has do to with the fact that, before the Second Part was published, a spurious Second Part appeared in 1614 to meet the demands of readers anxious to put their hands on the next installments. A man writing under the name of Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda, about whom even less is known than about Cervantes, wrote the ersatz sequel. This version is known as El Falso Quijote, in English The Apocryphal Quixote. In the real Second Part, the characters, not only Don Quixote and Sancho but also several others, often talk about it with disdain, proclaiming themselves authentic, unlike Fernández de Avellaneda’s creations. Referring to Cervantes’s novel as El Quijote is thus a way of stating what is rightfully his.

    One could argue that, since Cervantes’s death, countless others have laid claim to his book. Think of the infinite echoes of Don Quixote. Shakespeare probably read it, or at least knew about it. (The Bard co-wrote a play with John Fletcher called Cardenio, based on one of the Don Quixote episodes.) Diderot believed it encapsulated all philosophy, from Socrates to the Encyclopaedists. Samuel Taylor Coleridge recommended it without restrain. Flaubert modeled Madame Bovary after it. Dostoyevsky couldn’t stop praising it in his diaries and shaped his novel The Idiot as a tribute. Kafka felt a deep kinship toward it, making Gregor Samsa of The Metamorphosis verily Quixotic. And Borges repeatedly reimagined its structure and narrative premises. The list of admiring literati goes on: Henry Fielding, Lord Byron, Michel Foucault, Carlos Fuentes, Milan Kundera, and so on. There have been many detractors, too: Samuel Taylor Coleridge thought of it as unending, and Vladimir Nabokov believed it was a cruel book. Outside literature, the fan club is equally substantial: it includes Manuel de Falla, Orson Welles, George Balanchine, Terry Gilliam, Ernesto Ché Guevara, Nelson Mandela, and Subcomandante Marcos.

    While all this points to the universality of the novel, it is intriguing to note that Don Quixote is extraordinary local in its focus. It mainly deals with rural life in central Spain. And while it described, endearingly, the arid landscape of La Mancha, it is also, at least in my eyes, a severe critique of Cervantes’s time. Not a single page goes by without a stern assessment—social, political, religious, and military—of his society. The novel is built on pure satire, meaning that nothing is sacred. The list of targets is endless: one famous chapter criticizes the Holy Office of the Inquisition, another chapter ridicules the government; there are harsh comments about the place of women in Spanish society, Moors, aristocratic arrogance, and so on. Don Quixote and Sancho laugh at everything, including—and especially—themselves. In doing so, they indulge in a long-lasting sport in the Hispanic world: self-deprecation.

    The relationship between Spain and Don Quixote is rather complex. In spite of its early success, the country’s intelligentsia scorned it. Lope de Vega, Cervantes’s contemporary and rival as well as the most famous poet and playwright of the period, called it inferior. Since then, a national debate has ensured about its qualities and overall value. Among others, figures like Unamuno and José Ortega y Gasset have even attempted to extrapolate from its pages a distinct ideology, called Quijotismo: the capacity, in the face of adversity, to stick to one’s own ideals. For Spain, this ideology has been a double-edged sword: at times it has pushed it into depression, economic and psychological, and on other occasions it has been the inspiration in the finding of new collective goals.

    In Latin America, which for centuries functioned as the principal satellite of the Spanish Empire, another ideology has emerged, again linked to Don Quixote: Menardismo. It originates in Borges’s short story "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote," about a French symbolist poet who at the end of the nineteenth century decides to rewrite—not to copy but to rewrite from scratch—Don Quixote. The story has been read widely as a metaphor for the Latin American approach to art: through a stream of outside influences, it futilely seeks its own distinctiveness. Menardismo, then, finds uniqueness in a copy, declaring it authentic.

    From novel to ideology, Don Quixote has become a veritable fountain of linguistic expressions. As in the case of Shakespeare’s oeuvre, lots of Cervantes’s sentences, which he might have harvested from the time he lived in, are now part of popular parlance, such as "El amor es deseo de belleza (Love seeks beauty), Dad crédito a las obras y no a las palabras (Give credit to acts, not to words), La guerra, así como es madrastra de los cobardes, es la madre de los valientes (War is mother of the brave and stepmother of cowards), and Se va a la plaza del nunca por la calle del ya voy" (Promises are thinner than air). Furthermore, the novel’s protagonist has given the world an adjective: quijotesco, Quixotic, which the dictionary tells us means unrealistic, exceedingly idealistic but that conveys so much more: impetuous, ambitious, imaginative, capricious, determined, hopeful, optimistic, and even perfectionist.

    3. On Angst

    Chivalry literature was to Cervantes’s time what superhero adventures are to ours. Just as people today dress up like Batman, Spiderman, Superman, and the X-Men, readers then imagined themselves as Amadis de Gaula, Tirant Lo Bancc, and Palmerín of England. These were imaginary characters based on the mythic travails of the Crusaders and other knights. Dressed up in shining armor and riding their loyal horses, in the popular imagination they were ready to conquer heathen lands as a sign of courtly devotion to their fair ladies.

    Cervantes parodied these archetypes at a moment when people were eager to go beyond a stilted kind of heroism and he showed them how. Don Quixote is considered the first modern novel in the sense of the bildungsroman. Quijano, the protagonist, starts in one physical and emotional place and ends up in a radically different one. Modernity is about being in a constant state of change. And that state, that condition, generates endless angst.

    No matter how one looks at him, Don Quixote is an anxious character. He is always agonizing about his enemies, his capacity to defeat them, and his beloved’s fidelity to him. Early on in the narrative, he is described as a hidalgo, a lowly member of Spain’s seventeenth-century aristocracy. The word hidalgo derives from "hijo de algo," son of wealth, and it describes an individual who is financially passive, wasting his energy in idle endeavors, unlike the early manifestations of the bourgeoisie, who understood that change came as a result of individual talent and that such talent was a type of capital. Don Quixote’s angst is largely a byproduct of his class, whose standing is permanently untenable.

    The character Don Quixote is unprecedented by those in stories that come before because he has an inner life that is as vivid and complex as his outer one. Think of the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible, The Arabian Nights and the Odyssey, Dante’s Divine Comedy and Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. All of them are populated by characters without any interiority. In Genesis 12, the outset of the Abrahamic story, the Almighty says to him (in the King James Version), Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee. Abraham—then called Abram—reacts mechanically, without much thought. The Bible simply says, So Abram departed. I’m even tempted to describe him as an automaton.

    In contrast, any exchange between Don Quixote and Sancho Panza is a showcase of complex emotions. In the First Part, Chapter VIII, which stands among the most famous in the volume, the knight errant is eager to convince his squire that nearby windmills are actually a group of giants, but his squire isn’t convinced:

    Look, your worship, said Sancho; what we see there are not giants but windmills, and what seem to be their arms are the sails that turned by the wind make the millstone go.

    It is easy to see, replied Don Quixote, that thou art not used to this business of adventures; those are giants; and if thou art afraid, away with thee out of this and betake thyself to prayer while I engage them in fierce and unequal combat.

    This, unquestionably, is a two-way conversation. It defines the characters in the way dialogue makes any of us real people (if we can be said to be real). Not only is Don Quixote always changing, but, as this passage demonstrates, he is also stubborn, which implies he refuses to change. As a character, he disagrees internally. Indeed, in Cervantes’s novel, his characters don’t talk at each other but to one another; moreover, they exist in order to converse… and vice versa.

    I once attempted a list of the entire cast of Don Quixote. I stopped counting after I reached two hundred. Aside from the knight, there is his niece and a housekeeper, the town’s priest and barber, innkeepers and other villagers. There is Sancho, of course, who doesn’t show up as the knight’s companion until Chapter VII of the First Part; his family, as well as thieves, puppeteers, a duke and duchess, Moors, prisoners, printmakers, etcetera. And, of course, there is Dulcinea del Toboso, an ethereal presence, a Platonic figure more in Don Quixote’s psyche than in reality. Truly, like Shakespeare’s Duke Orsino in Twelfth Night, Don Quixote isn’t in love with Dulcinea as such but, rather, with love itself.

    Still, it is the pair of Don Quixote and Sancho, at first master and servant, soon teacher and pupil, then inseparable friends, that justifies the whole ride. Exquisitely drawn, they are a study in contrast: one a nobleman and the other poor, one is thin and tall and the other fat and short, one an idealist and the other a materialist, and one stubborn and impulsive and the other practical and flexible. As they go along their adventures, the two slowly influence one another, bringing about a Quixotization of Sancho Panza and a Sanchification of Don Quixote. The most dramatic point of mutual influence might be, at the book’s very end, Don Quixote recognizing that his idea of being a knight was an illusion and Sancho finally coming to believe in that illusion. Maybe that’s what friendship is about: sharing one’s essence and, as a result, changing it. Not accidentally, that friendship—that eternal couple—has become a staple of our culture. Think of its countless clones: Jacques and his master, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Ernie and Bert, Abbot and Costello, Vladimir and Estragon, and C3PO and R2D2.

    Since everything is transient, everything can and should be recorded, if only to fix that moment in time. The key to our identity resides in the language we use to describe a vision of the universe in any given moment. Words, hence, are our brick and mortar. And they surely are for Don Quixote and Sancho: Everything becomes a story. Through storytelling, they navigate epiphanies and misunderstandings. In truth, Don Quixote is just an accumulation of thinly interwoven episodes with this couple at center stage. Despite the novel’s long diversions (there are even autonomous novellas, like The Ill-Conceived Curiosity and The Captive’s Tale, that take several chapters that, even once we finish them, have no apparent connection to Don Quixote and Sancho), the back-and-forth between the two characters quickly becomes a labyrinth in which multitudes of narratives exist in dizzying competition.

    4. The Master of Artifice

    At one point in the Second Part, Don Quixote and Sancho enter a print shop in Barcelona, where they have a conversation about books and then about translations. The knight tells his squire that reading a novel in translation is like looking at a Flemish carpet from the back. Aside from being a superb metaphor, this line is also intimately linked to one of the essential themes of Don Quixote: the role of translation.

    From the very first line ("En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme…; In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to call to mind…), the narrator comes across as capricious and unreliable. As the plot unfolds, alternate narrators emerge, competing for the reader’s attention. Among them is an Arab historian named Cide Hamete Benengeli, who is said to have written down the adventures of Don Quixote beforehand in his native Arabic, which the novel’s original narrator stumbles across on a table with old books in Toledo. There is un moro aljamiado," a young Moor born in Spain, whom the narrator comes across in Toledo and asks to translate into Spanish Benengeli’s original Arabic text. On top of all these narrators is the author himself, either Cervantes or someone assuming his authorial voice, who occasionally reclaims control of the material.

    This game of voices makes Don Quixote a quintessential product of the Baroque, a style that stresses ornamentation and self-consciousness. The characters, particularly Don Quixote and Sancho, are relentlessly aware of their appearance—that is, their literariness. At one point in the Second Part, for instance, Don Quixote and Sancho encounter a reader of the First Part, who tells them that they aren’t quite as he imagined them. In another instance, two characters come across in Alonso Quijano’s library a copy of La Galatea, a novel by Cervantes. The effect of all such moments is that of a culture in the process of being turned into a caricature or imitation of itself, as in Diego Velázquez’s famous Las Meninas, in which the king and the queen, standing next to the would-be position of the painting’s creator and across from that painter’s image within the painting, look at themselves in a mirror, one in which only the observers—ourselves—are able to stand: a reflection of a reflection.

    To me, the most decisive of these games is the suggestion by Cervantes that what the reader has in hand is a palimpsest, one that originates in another language, with Cide Hamete Benengeli as its true author. That’s why I feel as if reading the book in Spanish is, in and of itself, an act of translation. Consequently, the fact that the vast majority of readers that have ever come to Don Quixote accessed it in translation is, at least to me, quite fitting. In my personal library, I have a large collection of versions in multiple languages, including, French, Portuguese, German, Korean, Hebrew, and Yiddish. (Plus, I have translated the novel into Spanglish. It begins: "En un placate of La Mancha of which nombre no quiero remembrearme…") And I have all the translations ever done into English.

    There have been no fewer than twenty English translations. To my knowledge, with the exception of the Bible, no other book has been translated as frequently into Shakespeare’s tongue. The majority was produced in England; not until the mid-twentieth century did American translators enter the ring. All but one translation are by men; the exception is by Edith Grossman, who published her popular version in 2003. The first English translator was Thomas Shelton, who is said to have completed the translation of the First Part in approximately thirty days at the request of a close friend who didn’t know Spanish. The British translators include a mailman, a nephew of John Milton, and a diplomat. One of those translators, novelist Tobias Smollett, is said not to have known a word of Spanish.

    This edition uses the rendition by John Ormsby (1829–1895), first published in London in 1885. I find his version the most genuine, the closest to the original, and with the most rhythm and sharpness. In a kind of mission statement, he states that fidelity to the method is as much a part of the translator’s duty as fidelity to the matter. He adds that the first duty is to those who look to him for as faithful a representation of his author as it is in his power to give them, faithful to the letter so long as fidelity is practicable, faithful to the spirit so far as he can make it.

    I like this version because it avoids affectation. In Ormsby’s words, no man abhorred it more than Cervantes, and the book skewers pretension with its sometimes ridiculous depiction of Don Quixote and the affected chivalry novels the character adores and the author detested. He does a particularly fine job of reflecting this skewering in his translation. Also, Ormsby understood that Spanish underwent less change since the seventeenth century than other European languages did. It is harder today for a native English speaker to read Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, for instance, than it is for a native Spanish speaker to read Cervantes’s novel. Of course, the translation the reader has in hand is 125 years old, so it isn’t contemporary. That is an aspect I frankly adore. After all, experiencing a classic of this caliber is an act of reaching back in time. The language of more recent translations is too fresh for me, too immediate. Unless one was a denizen of Cervantes’s Spain, a filter is needed to convey a degree of historical distance. Ormbsy concludes: "Seeing that the story of Don Quixote and all its characters and incidents have now been for more than two centuries and a half familiar as household words in English mouths, it seems to me that the old familiar names and phrases should not be changed without good reason. Of course a translator who holds that Don Quixote should receive the treatment a great classic deserves, will feel himself bound by the injunction laid upon the Morisco in Chap. IX not to omit or add anything."*

    Ormsby’s promise—to be true to the original—is kept fully in this anniversary edition, except for one addition: twenty spectacular new illustrations by the Mexican artist Eko, whose imaginative art is in line with legendary lithographer José Guadalupe Posada. There is a rich tradition of artists whose work engages with Cervantes’s novel: Picasso produced a silhouette of the knight and his squire that is as famous as the characters themselves, in part because Spain has used it—and abused it—for tourism purposes. Salvador Dalí produced an array of images to accompany the book. And then there are the phantasmagorical engravings of Gustave Doré, a French Romantic who in the nineteenth century produced some of the most recognized pictorial depictions. Eko has obviously studied those ancestors closely. His art is both a tribute and a departure. He turns the cast into almost outrageous, larger-than-life eyes, fingers, and hands, which he places on a curtained stage, to emphasize the spectacle of it all.

    * The one part of Ormsby’s rendition I dislike is in the First Part, Chapter I, when Alonso Quijano loses his mind. The original reads: En resolución, él se enfrascó tanto en su lectura, que se le pasaban las noches leyendo de claro en claro, y los días de turbio en turbio; y así, del poco dormir y del mucho leer, se le secó el celebro de manera que vino a perder el juicio. Ormsby abbreviates this section thus: In short, his wits being quite gone, he hit upon the strangest notion that ever madman in this world hit upon... Others, including Thomas Shelton, Cervantes’s first translator into English, do a far better job. Shelton’s version reads: In resolution, he plunged himself so deeply in his reading of these books, as he spent many times in the lecture of them whole days and nights; and in the end, through his little sleep and much reading, he dried up his brains in such sort as he lost wholly his judgment.

    5. Basic Questions

    I beg to differ with the characterization of Don Quixote as unrealistic; to me, Don Quixote is hyper-realistic. He understands quite well the weight of reality, even if he refuses to see it, thus choosing to sidestep it, to improve on it. I find him the most learned of all characters in literature, a wise man, an enlightened soul. His repeated mishaps are conventionally seen as demonstration of the outdatedness of his values. His redemption doesn’t come from standing unintentionally for his dream but, instead, for endorsing it even if it is… well, Quixotic.

    Indeed, after countless readings I have come to see Don Quixote not only as a novel but as a manual for life. You’ll find in it anything you need, from lessons on how to speak and eat and love to an exhortation of a disciplined, focused life, an argument against censorship, and a call to make lasting friends, which, as Cervantes puts it, is what makes bearable our long journey from birth to death. People have been drawn to the book because it addresses the basic questions: Who am I and what makes me unique? What is truth and how should that truth be shared? Are we all trapped in our own circumstances? And what happens to a dream deferred? Don Quixote sweeps these questions off the table with a simple response: it is our imagination that sets us free. For, as Yeats wrote, in dreams begins responsibility, though it certainly doesn’t end there.

    Chronology

    This timetable mentions only a handful of the infinite echoes of Don Quixote in literature, culture, and history. For a fuller explanation of the publication and legacy of Miguel de Cervantes’s masterwork, see Ilan Stavans’s Quixote: The Novel and the World (W. W. Norton & Company, 2015).

    1547 Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra is born in Alcalá de Henares, near Madrid, Spain.

    1605 The First Part of El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de La Mancha, by Cervantes, is published.

    1608 César Oudin renders Cervantes’s novella The Ill-Conceived Curiosity into French. Oudin will translate the First Part of Don Quixote in 1614. His translation of the Second Part, which completed the rendition of the novel into French, appeared in 1618.

    1612 Thomas Shelton releases in London an English-language rendition of Don Quixote, First Part. It is the first translation of Cervantes’s novel ever to be done. Thousands of translations will follow into every single standardized tongue as well as into dialects, jargons, and slangs. It supposedly took Shelton over a month in 1607 to finish his rendition, but he didn’t publish it until some five years later.

    1613 The History of Cardenio, a lost play by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, is written. It shares with Don Quixote the character of Cardenio, a nobleman in love who becomes mad and does penance in the Sierra Morena.

    1614 A fake sequel to Don Quixote, under the title of Segundo tomo del ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, written by one Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda, appears in Spain. Cervantes is furious. He uses the excuse to finish his own sequel. Avellaneda’s identity remains unknown.

    1615 Cervantes’s own sequel, known as the Second Part, is published.

    1616 Cervantes dies at the age of sixty-eight in Madrid. He is buried in the Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians.

    1622 Lorenzo Franciosini translates the First Part of the novel into Italian. The Second Part will appear in 1625.

    1677 François Filleau de Saint-Martin translates Don Quixote into French as Histoire de l’admirable Don Quichotte de la Manche. He leaves the last chapter out in order to write a sequel of his own. He will die before finishing the task. One of Filleau de Saint-Martin’s students, Robert Challe, will complete it years later.

    1700 French-born English author, playwright, and translator Peter Anthony Motteux renders Cervantes’s novel into English. In abbreviated, recomposed, and modified versions, his remains the most frequently reprinted rendition.

    1734 Don Quixote in England, a play by English satirist Henry Fielding, is staged. It is designed as an attack on Prime Minister Robert Walpole.

    1737 For the first time, the words Quixote, Quixotada, and Quixotería enter a lexicon. They are included in Spain’s Diccionario de autoridades.

    1742 In the title page of Joseph Andrews, Fielding notes that the novel is "written in Imitation of the Manner of Cervantes, Author of Don Quixote." Three years after his death, the translation of Don Quixote by Irish portrait painter and art collector Charles Jervas (misspelled in the title page as Jarvis, a typo forever stuck to the name) appears posthumously. It is considered the most accurate but is also described as stiff and without humor. It is reprinted frequently in the eighteenth century.

    1752 The Female Quixote: or, The Adventures of Arabella, a novel by Gibraltar-born British poet and actress Charlotte Lennox, is published in England.

    1755 After several publication delays, Scottish novelist Tobias Smollett releases in London his own translation of Don Quixote, known as The History and Adventures of the Renowned Don Quixote. He is immediately accused of not knowing a word of Spanish, and his translation is criticized as being a commissioned job wholly done by a group of hired translators who plagiarized portions from previous versions.

    1759 The character of Uncle Toby in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, by Anglo-Irish novelist Laurence Sterne, is based on Don Quixote.

    1761 German baroque composer Georg Philipp Telemann writes the opera Don Quichotte auf der Hochzeit des Camacho.

    1767 Telemann writes the orchestral suite Don Quichotte.

    1769 N. Osipov translates Don Quixote into Russian for the first time. His rendition is based on the French version by Filleau de Saint-Martin.

    1780 The first map of Don Quixote’s itinerary in La Mancha is drawn by Spanish royal geographer Tomás López. It is endorsed by the Real Academia Española (RAE).

    1792 American writer and Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice Hugh Henry Brackenridge publishes the first two parts of his novel Modern Chivalry: Containing the Adventures of Captain John Farrago and Teague O’Regan, His servant, set in the western Pennsylvania frontier. The third part appeared in 1793 and the fourth and last in 1797. A revised edition was published in 1833.

    1801 New Hampshire–based American writer Tabitha Gilman Tenney writes the novel Female Quixotism, Exhibited in the Romantic Opinions and Extravagant Adventures of Dorcasina Sheldon.

    1833 Mariano Arévalo’s five-volume edition appears in Mexico City, the first time Don Quixote is printed in the New World. At the same time in Spain, scholar and diplomat Diego Clemencín puts out the first annotated edition of Don Quixote. His exhaustive effort concludes in 1939.

    1838 Konstantin Massal’skii translates Don Quixote into Russian. It is the first translation into that language done from the Spanish.

    1850 French artist Honoré Daumier exhibits at the Paris Salon, the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, a series of drawings based on Don Quixote.

    1851 American writer Herman Melville publishes Moby-Dick: or, The Whale. It displays a strong quixotic quality, the result of Melville’s lifelong admiration of Cervantes’s book.

    1856 French novelist Gustave Flaubert releases Madame Bovary. The book comes after years of rereading Don Quixote.

    1860 Russian novelist and playwright Ivan Turgenev lectures on Hamlet and Don Quixote in different parts of Russia.

    1863 French engraver, illustrator, and sculptor Gustave Doré completes the engravings that illustrate the French translation by Louis Viardot in two volumes, published under the aegis of Hachette and Co., in Paris, and Cassell and Co., in London.

    1868 Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky serializes The Idiot in the periodical The Russian Messenger. Its protagonist, Prince Myshkin, is an idealized version of Don Quixote. The serialization concludes in 1869.

    1869 The ballet Don Quixote, with music by Austrian composer Ludwig Minkus and choreography by French ballet dancer Marius Petipa, is presented at the Bolshoi Theatre, in Moscow. Petipa and Minkus will expand it into five acts in 1871, when it will be staged at the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, in St. Petersburg.

    1871 For the next decade, Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud corresponds with his Romanian friend Eduard Silberstein. They sign their letters as Cipión (Freud) and Berganza (Silberstein), after the characters of Cervantes’s novella The Colloquy of the Dogs.

    1874 Don Quichotte, a play by French dramatist Victorien Sardou, with music by the Prussian-born French composer Jacques Offenbach, premieres in Paris.

    1876 Mexican American writer María Amparo Ruiz de Burton, author of the classic novel The Squatter and the Don, about land claims in California after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, brings out her theatrical adaptation Don Quixote de la Mancha: A Comedy in Five Acts: Taken From Cervantes’ Novel of That Name.

    1878 Minsk-born writer and pedagogue Sholem Yankev Abramovitch, also known by the name Mendele Mokher Sforim, the grandfather of Yiddish literature, writes the novel Kitser masoes Binyomen hashlishi. It is structured as a tribute to Cervantes’s book. American journalist, romantic poet, and editor of the New York Evening Post William Cullen Bryant writes a poem about Cervantes to commemorate his death.

    1884 American writer and humorist Mark Twain publishes Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Along with its prequel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, it meditates on the themes of Don Quixote.

    1885 British translator John Ormsby publishes his translation of Don Quixote, the most scholarly up until then. It later becomes the first translation available on the Internet. American poet James Russell Lowell delivers a lecture on Don Quixote in London’s Working Men’s College.

    1892 British scholar James Fitzmaurice-Kelly publishes the biography The Life of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.

    1895 American writer William Dean Howells, in his book My Literary Passions, discusses his discovery of Don Quixote. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe publishes Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, about a journey of self-realization that is inspired in Don Quixote.

    1897 Later-Romantic German composer Richard Strauss writes Phantastische Variationen über ein Thema ritterlichen Charakters (Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character), Opus 35. Spanish writer and diplomat Ángel Ganivet publishes Idearium español and El porvenir de España. They discuss his country’s infatuation with Quijotismo.

    1900 Uruguayan literary critic and cultural commentator José Enrique Rodó publishes his book-long essay Ariel, structured as a letter to the youth of Hispanic America. It is an overt variation on Quixote themes.

    1902 The French silent movie Don Quichotte, by directors Ferdinand Zecca and Lucien Nonguet, is the first ever to be based on Don Quixote. Spanish zarzuela composer Ruperto Chapí premiers the light comedy La venta de Don Quijote.

    1905 To commemorate the three-hundredth anniversary of the publication of Don Quixote, Nicaraguan poet and leader of the Modernista movement Rubén Darío publishes the poem "Letanía de nuestro señor Don Quijote." Spanish philosopher and novelist Miguel de Unamuno releases his volume Vida de Don Quijote y Sancho. James Fitzmaurice-Kelly publishes Cervantes in England. José Martínez Ruíz, better known as Azorín, commissioned by the newspaper El Imparcial, follows the route of Don Quixote in Spain, writing a travel book that is also a psychological exploration of the novel’s impact in the nation’s popular imagination.

    1907 Mexican lampooner José Guadalupe Posada engraves the Calavera Quijotesca.

    1909 French composer Jules Massenet begins composing his five-act opera, Don Quichotte, with a libretto by French librettist Henri Caïn. Massenet calls it a "comédie-héroïque."

    1912 Russian Jewish poet of the Hebrew literary renaissance Chaim Nachman Bialik translates Don Quixote into Hebrew. His source is a Russian version.

    1914 Spanish thinker and cultural commentator José Ortega y Gasset writes Las Meditaciones del Quixote.

    1915 American actor, singer, and comedian William DeWolf Hopper produces the short film Don Quixote.

    1916 Fitzmaurice-Kelly publishes Cervantes and Shakespeare.

    1922 Spanish composer Manuel de Falla’s El retablo de maese Pedro, a puppet-opera in one act, with a prologue and an epilogue, has its premier.

    1926 Spanish theorist, literary critic, and journalist Ramiro de Maeztu publishes Don Quijote, Don Juan y la Celestina, in which he meditates on Spain’s archetypal literary character.

    1927 British detective writer, biographer, and polemicist G. K. Chesterton writes The Return of Don Quixote.

    1928 Daniel Venegas serializes his Chicano novel, The Adventures of Don Chipote: or, A Sucker’s Tale, in the Mexican newspaper El Heraldo. It tells the quixotic story of an impoverished and illiterate peasant who immigrates to the United States.

    1931 Hasidic parable Die Wahrheit über Sancho Panza, by German-language Czech novelist and insurance worker Franz Kafka, appears in the collection Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer.

    1932 French composer Maurice Ravel writes the first of three songs for voice and piano, collectively known as Don Quichotte à Dulcinée, set to poems on Don Quixote by French poet, playwright, and diplomat Paul Morand.

    1933 Austrian film director Georg Wilhelm Pabst releases the film Adventures of Don Quixote. There are three versions of it, all done the same year: one in French, another in English, and the third in German. Russian actor Feodor Chaliapin stars in all of them.

    1935 Spanish-born Oxford scholar, historian, and diplomat Salvador de Madariaga releases the literary study Don Quixote: An Introductory Essay in Psychology.

    1939 Argentine hombre de letras Jorge Luis Borges publishes in the magazine Sur his story "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote." It is reprinted in his 1944 collection, Ficciones.

    1940 Catalan composer Roberto Gerhard writes the ballet Don Quixote. In 1947 Gerhard rewrote the ballet. It is staged at London’s Covent Garden with choreography by Irish-born British Ninette de Valois and décor by English printmaker Edward Burra.

    1945 Catalan surrealist artist Salvador Dalí creates a series of watercolors to illustrate the First Part of Don Quixote, for an edition published by Random House.

    1947 The first full-length feature film based on Don Quixote is released. It is called Don Quijote de La Mancha, directed by Spanish screenwriter and director Rafael Gil. Pedro Salinas, a Spanish poet who belonged to the Generation of ’27 aesthetic movement, publishes in The Nation an essay called "Don Quixote and the Novel."

    1948 Spanish journalist, translator, and essayist Luis Astrana Marín publishes the first of his seven-volume biography Vida ejemplar y heróica de Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. The last volume appears in 1958. The first partial translation into Japanese based on the Spanish, by Hirosada Nagata, is released in Tokyo.

    1949 American translator and scholar of Romance languages Samuel Putnam releases his translation of Don Quixote into contemporary English. He also rendered into English a couple of novellas from Cervantes’s Exemplary Novellas.

    1950 British translator of European literature J. M. (John Michael) Cohen, also known for his translations of Rousseau, Rabelais, Montaigne, and Teresa de Ávila, renders Don Quixote into English for Penguin Books.

    1951 During the fall semester, Russian-born trilingual novelist Vladimir Nabokov teaches a course at Harvard on Don Quixote, accusing it of cruelty. The first translation of the novel into Yiddish is released by Argentine Jewish intellectual and newspaper editor Pinie Katz. Done directly from the Spanish, it is published in Buenos Aires.

    1953 Avant-garde Irish novelist Samuel Beckett premiers the play Waiting for Godot at the Théâtre de Babylone, in Paris. Berlin-born Jewish philologist Erich Auerbach publishes the study Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. One of its chapters deals with Dulcinea.

    1954 Irish Hispanist Walker Starkie, known for his worldwide travels, publishes his abridged translation of Don Quixote into English. The unabridged version will appear in 1964.

    1955 Spanish scholar Juan Givanel Mas y Gaziel published the illustrated volume Historia gráfica de Cervantes y del Quijote. The cover of the French weekly magazine Les Lettres Françaises features a silhouette by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso of the knight-errant and his squire. It quickly becomes a staple of the novel’s durability. American writer Kenneth Grahame published the novel Adventures in Yankeeland, which transposes Don Quixote to the United States.

    1956 American film director and actor Orson Welles, on The Frank Sinatra Show, comes up with the idea of making a film based on Don Quixote. This lifelong project will be left unfinished. In 1992, Spanish B-movie director Jesús Franco and producer Patxi Irigoyen make a 116-minute remix, greeted negatively by audiences. The Russian film Don Kikhot, directed by Ukrainian-born Russian Jewish director Grigori Kozintsev, wins an award at the Cannes Film Festival.

    1961 A collection of vignettes by Puerto Rican activist and New York newspaper columnist Jesús Colón is published under the title A Puerto Rican in New York and Other Sketches. It is marked by a quixotic view of immigrant life as dwelling between two extremes: materialism and idealism.

    1965 The American musical Man of La Mancha, with a book by playwright Dale Wasserman, lyrics by songwriter Joe Darion, and music by composer Mitch Leigh, premiers on Broadway. (American-based British poet W. H. Auden was originally asked to write the libretto, producing an early draft.) The movie adaptation, with Peter O’Toole, Sophia Loren, and Ian Richardson, and directed by Canadian filmmaker Arthur Hiller, is released in 1972. Russian choreographer George Balanchine premiers his ballet Don Quixote, with music by Russian-born composer Nicholas Nabokov, and performed by American ballerina Suzanne Farrell. French filmmaker Éric Rohmer makes a twenty-three-minute movie called Don Quichotte de Cervantes.

    1966 French semiotician Michel Foucault publishes The Order of Things, in which Don Quixote, a central topic, is seen from a semiotic perspective.

    1973 Mexican standup comedian Mario Moreno Cantinflas is Sancho Panza in the movie Don Quijote cabalga de nuevo.

    1977 British comedian John Cleese, a guest of The Muppet Show, apologizes for not singing the lyrics of The Impossible Dream, the theme song of Man of La Mancha, calling it trash.

    1980 The first branch of the Japanese discount store Don Quijote, known simply as Donki, opens up in the Suginami neighborhood of Tokyo. Japanese anime series Don Quixote: Tales of La Mancha is released. British writer Robin Chapman published the novel The Duchess’ Diary. It is part of a trilogy, along with Sancho’s Golden Age (2004) and Pasamonte’s Life (2005), featuring characters from Don Quixote. Chapman is also the author of Shakespeare’s Don Quixote (2011), a novel-cum-dialogue between Shakespeare, John Fletcher, and Cervantes.

    1982 British novelist and Catholic polemicist Graham Greene publishes the novel Monsignor Quixote.

    1983 Swiss astronomer Paul Wild discovers Asteroid 3552. It functions as an asteroid but behaves like a comet. He names it Don Quixote.

    1985 American experimental writer Kathy Acker writes the novel Don Quixote: Which Was a Dream. And Susan Sontag writes an essay on Don Quixote for Spain’s Tourist Agency. It is called "España: Todo bajo el sol."

    1986 Czech novelist Milan Kundera published The Art of the Novel, which includes the essay The Depreciated Legacy of Cervantes.

    1987 Dinamic Software releases in Spain the video game Don Quijote, based on an animated series produced by Televisión Española.

    1991 TVE, Spanish Television, produces the movie El caballero Don Quijote, based on the First Part, by Spanish screenwriter and director Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón.

    1995 Indian-born British writer Salman Rushdie publishes the novel The Moor’s Last Sigh. American academic Burton Raffel publishes his translation into English of Don Quixote.

    1998 Chilean-born Spanish-based novelist Roberto Bolaño publishes the novel The Savage Detectives. Terry Gilliam, the American-born British comedian and director, fails to make a movie called The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, starring Jean Rochefort and Johnny Depp. After being postponed, it goes into production in 2000, with a budget of $32.1 million. The effort collapses after a number of mishaps, including insurance issues, the destruction of equipment during a flood, and an actor’s illness. Apparently, the project acquires new life in the decade following and—with a different script—is slated to be completed for a 2015 release.

    2000 American film director Peter Yates makes the TV movie Don Quixote. The script is by British novelist John Mortimer. It stars John Lithgow, Bob Hoskins, and Isabella Rossellini.

    2002 Mexican-born American literary critic and cultural commentator Ilan Stavans publishes a Spanglish translation of Don Quixote, First Part, Chapter I, in a literary supplement in Barcelona. It is included in his book Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language. TVE produces El caballero Don Quijote, a movie based only on the Second Part and directed by Gutiérrez Aragón. The documentary Lost in La Mancha, directed by Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe, is released. It is about Terry Gilliam’s failed attempt to freely adapt, or pay tribute to, Don Quixote in the movie called The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.

    2003 American translator Edith Grossman is the first woman ever to translate Don Quixote into English.

    2005 The Royal Academy of the Spanish Language in Madrid releases a commemorative edition of Don Quixote to celebrate the four-hundredth anniversary of its release.

    2006 Peruvian scholar Demetrio Túpac Yupanqui translates parts of Don Quixote into Quechua.

    2007 The Conseil de l’Europe, an organization endowed with promoting Europe’s cultural heritage, gives its official stamp to the tourist route the knight-errant and his squire supposedly follow in their three adventures. A Spanish CGI-animated movie Donkey Xote, with Sancho’s donkey as lead character, is released.

    2009 Retired American university librarian James H. Montgomery publishes Don Quixote. It is the twentieth full rendition of the novel into English.

    2015 To relocate them to a more decorous grave, the remains of Cervantes, identified through DNA, are exhumed in Madrid. The Second Part of Don Quixote turns four hundred years old, acknowledged with symposia, translations, books, and film cycles.

    2016 The four-hundredth anniversary of the death of Shakespeare and Cervantes, the two most important writers of the Renaissance, is commemorated globally.

    Index of Illustrations

    first part

    CHAPTER I With little sleep and much reading his brains got so dry that he lost his wits.

    CHAPTER VI The priest and the barber burn Alonso Quijano’s books of chivalry

    CHAPTER VIII What we see there are not giants but windmills, and what seem to be their arms are the sails that turned by the wind make the millstone go.

    CHAPTER X I have found no mention made of knights-errant eating, unless by accident or at some sumptuous banquets prepared for them, and the rest of the time they passed in dalliance.

    CHAPTER XXV Don Quixote and Dulcinea del Toboso

    CHAPTER XL A Moor and his captives

    CHAPTER XLVII Don Quixote in the barber and priest’s cage

    END OF THE FIRST PART

    second part

    CHAPTER XII So long as the game lasts, each piece has its own particular office, and when the game is finished they are all mixed, jumbled up and shaken together, and stowed away in the bag, which is much like ending life in the grave.

    CHAPTER XIII Alonso Quijano and his greyhound for coursing

    CHAPTER XVII Don Quixote faces the lions

    CHAPTER XX Don Quixote and company at Quiteria’s wedding

    CHAPTER XXII Don Quixote descends into the cave of Montesinos

    CHAPTER XXV The puppet-showman Master Pedro and his question-answering ape

    CHAPTER XXVI Master Pedro puts on a puppet show

    CHAPTER LX Don Quixote and Sancho enter Barcelona

    CHAPTER LXI Don Quixote, upon entering Barcelona, contemplates the sea

    CHAPTER LXII Don Quixote and the Enchanted Head

    CHAPTER LXIV Don Quixote and the Knight of the White Moon

    CHAPTER LXXIV The death of Don Quixote

    Contents

    first part

    Author’s Preface

    Dedication of the First Part

    Chapter I

    Which treats of the character and pursuits of the famous gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha

    Chapter II

    Which treats of the first sally the ingenious Don Quixote made from home

    Chapter III

    Wherein is related the droll way in which Don Quixote had himself dubbed a knight

    chapter iv

    Of what happened to our knight when he left the inn

    chapter v

    In which the narrative of our knight’s mishap is continued

    chapter vi

    Of the diverting and important scrutiny which the curate and the barber made in the library of our ingenious gentleman

    chapter vii

    Of the second sally of our worthy knight Don Quixote of La Mancha

    chapter viii

    Of the good fortune which the valiant Don Quixote had in the terrible and undreamt-of adventure of the windmills, with other occurrences worthy to be fitly recorded

    chapter ix

    In which is concluded and finished the terrific battle between the gallant Biscayan and the valiant Manchegan

    chapter x

    of the pleasant discourse that passed between Don Quixote and his squire Sancho Panza

    chapter xi

    what befell Don Quixote with certain goatherds

    chapter xii

    of what a goatherd related to those with Don Quixote

    chapter xiii

    in which is ended the story of the shepherdess Marcela, with other incidents

    chapter xiv

    wherein are inserted the despairing verses of the dead shepherd, together with other incidents not looked for

    chapter xv

    in which is related the unfortunate adventure that Don Quixote fell in with when he fell out with certain heartless Yanguesans

    chapter xvi

    of what happened to the ingenious gentleman in the inn which he took to be a castle

    chapter xvii

    In which are contained the innumerable troubles which the brave Don Quixote and his good squire Sancho Panza endured in the inn, which to his misfortune he took to be a castle

    chapter xviii

    In which is related the discourse Sancho Panza held with his master, Don Quixote, and other adventures worth relating

    chapter xix

    of the shrewd discourse which Sancho held with his master, and of the adventure that befell him with a dead body, together with other notable occurrences

    chapter xx

    of the unexampled and unheard-of adventure which was achieved by the valiant Don Quixote of La Mancha with less peril than any ever achieved by any famous knight in the world

    chapter xxi

    which treats of the exalted adventure and rich prize of Mambrino’s helmet, together with other things that happened to our invincible knight

    chapter xxii

    of the freedom Don Quixote conferred on several unfortunates who against their will were being carried where they had no wish to go

    chapter xxiii

    of what befell Don Quixote in the Sierra Morena, which was one of the rarest adventures related in this veracious history

    chapter xxiv

    in which is continued the adventure of the Sierra Morena

    chapter xxv

    which treats of the strange things that happened to the stout knight of La Mancha in the Sierra Morena, and of his imitation of the penance of Beltenebros

    chapter xxvi

    in which are continued the refinements wherewith Don Quixote played the part of a lover in the Sierra Morena

    chapter xxvii

    of how the curate and the barber proceeded with their scheme; together with other matters worthy of record in this great history

    chapter xxviii

    which treats of the strange and delightful adventure that befell the curate and the barber in the same Sierra

    chapter xxix

    which treats of the droll device and method adopted to extricate our love-stricken knight from the severe penance he had imposed upon himself

    chapter xxx

    which treats of address displayed by the fair Dorothea, with other matters pleasant and amusing

    chapter xxxi

    of the delectable discussion between Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, his squire, together with other incidents

    chapter xxxii

    which treats of what befell Don Quixote’s party at the inn

    chapter xxxiii

    in which is related the novel of The Ill-Advised Curiosity

    chapter xxxiv

    in which is continued the novel of The Ill-Advised Curiosity

    chapter xxxv

    which treats of the heroic and prodigious battle Don Quixote had with certain skins of red wine, and brings the novel of The Ill-Advised Curiosity to a close

    chapter xxxvi

    which treats of more curious incidents that occurred at the inn

    chapter xxxvii

    in which is continued the story of the famous Princess Micomicona, with other droll adventures

    chapter xxxviii

    which treats of the curious discourse Don Quixote delivered on arms and letters

    chapter xxxix

    wherein the captive relates his life and adventures

    chapter xl

    in which the story of the captive is continued

    chapter xli

    in which the captive still continues his adventures

    chapter xlii

    which treats of what further took place in the inn, and of several other things worth knowing

    chapter xliii

    wherein is related the pleasant story of the muleteer, together with other strange things that came to pass in the inn

    chapter xliv

    in which are continued the unheard-of adventures of the inn

    chapter xlv

    in which the doubtful question of Mambrino’s helmet and the pack-saddle is finally settled, with other adventures that occurred in truth and earnest

    chapter xlvi

    of the end of the notable adventure of the officers of the holy brotherhood; and of the great ferocity of our worthy knight, Don Quixote

    chapter xlvii

    of the strange manner in which Don Quixote of La Mancha was carried away enchanted, together with other remarkable incidents

    chapter

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