Don Quixote
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
Summary
The book that invented the modern novel. What begins as a slapstick satire of chivalry evolves into a profound meditation on the power of dreams and the nature of reality. Alonso Quixano, an aging gentleman, reads so many books about knights that he loses his mind and decides to become one. Renaming himself Don Quixote, he recruits a simple farmer named Sancho Panza as his squire and sets out to right wrongs. The novel is built on the contrast between Quixote's idealism (he sees windmills as giants) and Sancho's realism (he sees them as windmills). As their journey continues, the two characters influence each other: Quixote becomes more grounded, and Sancho becomes more of a dreamer. It is a story about the friendship that bridges the gap between who we are and who we want to be.
Why Read This?
Four hundred years later, it remains the most human of all novels. It teaches us that perhaps the greatest madness of all is to see life only as it is, and not as it should be. It will make you laugh, weep, and believe. Don Quixote is the original buddy comedy, but it is also a deep philosophical inquiry. It asks whether it is better to live a happy delusion or a sad reality. Cervantes manages to mock his hero while simultaneously making us fall in love with him. It is a book that celebrates the indomitable nature of the human spirit.
About the Author
Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) is the greatest figure in Spanish literature. His life was as adventurous as his fiction: he was a soldier who lost the use of his left hand in the Battle of Lepanto, was captured by pirates, and spent five years as a slave in Algiers before returning to Spain. He wrote Don Quixote in his later years, while in and out of prison for debt. He created a character that has become an eternal archetype, influencing everything from Dostoevsky's The Idiot to the modern superhero.
