Don Quijote

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Don Quixote
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For other uses, see Don Quixote (disambiguation).

Don Quixote |

Title page of first edition (1605) |
Author(s) | Miguel de Cervantes |
Original title | El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote De la Mancha |
Country | Castile |
Language | Old Spanish (Old Castilian) |
Genre(s) |Picaresco, satire, parody, farce |
Publisher | Juan de la Cuesta |
Publication date | 1605 (Part One)
1615 (Part Two) |
Published in English | 1612 (Part One)
1620 (Part Two) |
Media type | Print |
Dewey Decimal | 863 |
LC Classification | PQ6323 |
Don Quixote (pron.: /ˌdɒn kiːˈhoʊtiː/; Spanish: [ˈdoŋ kiˈxote] ( listen)), fully titled The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of LaMancha (Spanish: El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha), is a novel written by Miguel de Cervantes. The novel follows the adventures of Alonso Quijano, a hidalgo who reads so many chivalric novels, that he decides to set out to revive chivalry under the name of Don Quixote. He recruits a simple farmer, Sancho Panza, as his squire, who frequently deals with Don Quixote's rhetorical orations onantiquated knighthood with a unique, earthy wit. He is met by the world as it is, initiating themes like intertextuality, realism, metatheatre and literary representation.
Published in two volumes a decade apart, in 1605 and 1615, Don Quixote is considered the most influential work of literature from the Spanish Golden Age and the entire Spanish literary canon. As a founding work of modern Westernliterature, and one of the earliest canonical novels, it regularly appears high on lists of the greatest works of fiction ever published. In a 2002 list,Don Quixote was cited as the "best literary work ever written".[1]
Contents  [hide]  * 1 Plot * 1.1 Part 1 * 1.1.1 The First Sally * 1.1.2 The Second Sally * 1.1.2.1 The Pastoral Wanderings * 1.1.2.2 TheAdventures with Cardenio and Dorotea * 1.2 Part 2 * 1.2.1 The Third Sally * 2 Meaning * 3 Themes * 4 Background * 4.1 Sources * 4.2 Spurious Second Part by Avellaneda * 4.3 Other stories * 5 Style * 5.1 Spelling and pronunciation * 5.2 Setting * 5.3 Language * 6 Publication * 6.1 English editions in translation * 7 See also *8 References and sources * 9 Further reading * 10 External links |
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[edit]Plot
[edit]Part 1
[edit]The First Sally
Alonso Quijano, the protagonist of the novel, is a retired country gentleman nearing fifty years of age, living in an unnamed section of La Mancha with his niece and housekeeper. While mostly a rational man of sound reason, his reading ofbooks of chivalry in excess has had a profound effect on him, leading to the distortion of his perception and the wavering of his mental faculties. In essence, he believes every word of these books of chivalry to be true though, for the most part, the content of these books is clearly fiction. Otherwise, his wits are intact. He decides to go out as a knight-errant in search of adventure. He dons anold suit of armour, renames himself "Don Quixote de la Mancha," and names his skinny horse "Rocinante". He designates a neighboring farm girl as his lady love, renaming her Dulcinea del Toboso, while she knows nothing about this.
He sets out in the early morning and ends up at an inn, which he believes to be a castle. He asks the innkeeper, whom he thinks to be the lord of the castle, to dub hima knight. He spends the night holding vigil over his armor, where he becomes involved in a fight with muleteers who try to remove his armor from the horse trough so that they can water their mules. The innkeeper then dubs him a knight to be rid of him, and sends him on his way. Don Quixote next "frees" a young boy who is tied to a tree and beaten by his master by making his master swear on...