Don Quijote de la Mancha

Escrito por Miguel de Cervantes

Narrado por Elenco Fonolibro

Don Quijote de la Mancha (Miguel de Cervantes) FonoLibro, el lider en audiolibros en espanol, celebra con una oferta en precio el quinto aniversario del lanzamiento de uno de sus audiolibros más populares, la cual es considerada como la obra mas importante y universal de nuestra lengua "Las Aventuras del Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de La Mancha", mas conocida por el nombre abreviado de "Don Quijote".

Miguel de Cervantes de Saavedra, su autor, relata en esta magna novela las fabulosas aventuras de un "caballero andante" y su escudero, el bonachón y pícaro "Sancho Panza", al recorrer los caminos de España para "deshacer entuertos", creando una saga que ha sido dibujada en todas las formas y medios del arte y la narrativa de todos los tiempos. "Don Quijote", junto con La Biblia, es quizás una de las obras humanas que se ha traducido a mayor número de idiomas. Esta historia inmortal enriqueció el lenguaje, creó personajes y arquetipos inolvidables y exaltó por siempre el espíritu humano. Haciendo honor a esta herencia, FonoLibro ha dramatizado la historia con las mejores voces de nuestro idioma. Este audiolibro revive, en una fecha histórica, las peripecias y hazañas de Don Quijote y Sancho Panza de una manera entretenida y a un nivel de producción que lo hará figurar de manera destacada en su hogar, para disfrute de toda su familia.

• Idioma: Español
• Editorial: Fonolibro
• Fecha de lanzamiento: 1 jun 2014
• ISBN: 9781611540901

Miguel de Cervantes

Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) ejerció las más variadas profesiones antes de dedicarse plenamente a la literatura. Entró en Roma al servicio del cardenal Acquaviva, fue soldado en la batalla de Lepanto (1571), estuvo cinco años cautivo en Argel y ejerció como comisario real de abastos para la Armada Invencible. Tales oficios le reportaron una experiencia humana que supo plasmar magistralmente en todas sus obras. De su producción poética cabe destacar Viaje del Parnaso (1614), un verdadero testamento literario y espiritual. En el campo teatral cultivó la tragedia, la tragicomedia, la comedia y el entremés. Pero sin duda es en el terreno de la narrativa donde Cervantes se impuso a sus contemporáneos y obtuvo logros que le valdrían el título de creador de la novela moderna, con libros como La Galatea (1585), El ingeniosohidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha (1605), Novelas ejemplares (1613), El ingenioso caballero don Quijote de la Mancha (segunda parte de su obra cumbre, 1615) y, póstumamente, Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda (1617).

Comentarios para Don Quijote de la Mancha

[roxanagutierrezm · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Genial narración , muy entretenida e intensa , me encanto

[MARIA TERESA CASTILLO MARTINEZ · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Excelente forma de revivir esta magnifica historia ! Me encanto!!!

[keebrook · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

it’s interesting to see paradigms and tropes from almost 500 years ago revealed in this story. i am sure that i am missing the majority of the prejudices, jokes, and ridicule meant to be conveyed by the story but i’ve found that they really are wittily written.

i think the details of the story aren’t so important as the story arc itself. in fact, it’s not quite right to say this is just one “story” because it is truly made up of many little vignettes, side-stories, and even stories within stories. it falls into the same category of frame story like Canterbury Tales, the Decameron, or One Thousand and One Nights (aka Arabian Nights). frankly, it was difficult for me to read in full because i could not see the path of the story. it just seemed to ramble on without purpose.

Don Quixote has become so embedded in our modern culture as to be indistinguishable from mythology or psychological archetype. the commentary on the mind, class relations, knowledge of one’s own self and others, perceptions and prescriptions of madness and nonconformity, etc. are all explored in this book. of course, we get to see the prejudice of our historical past, especially with regard to women’s roles in society. the idea of someone being a “Lothario” comes from this book in the form of one of those stories within the story but this one is different in that it’s a fictional tale being told by one of the characters. it helps bring to the fore the attitudes of the book on morality surrounding marriage, how both men and women are seen to be somewhat at the mercy of a woman’s beauty, and how insecurity can be its own worst enemy. this is couched in the semantics and morality of the culture which blames the tragic outcome on the husband’s curiosity rather than his insecurity or jealousy.

the cultural artifacts in the book are fascinating and sometimes surprising but i didn’t expect the book to be so funny. i thought that it might be sadly comic in slapstick or mocking madmen but i found genuine wit and guile. some of the dialogue and situations described are simply on the level of some of the best Monty Python or social and political satire- at least in the first part. The second part isn’t so jovial and the tone leads to a deeper, tragic feeling beneath it all where Quixote himself becomes the norm and the vile, modern, “sane” civilization through which he walks begins to seem unbalanced and crazy. In some ways, he has a Cassandra complex but instead of no one believing his tales of the future, no one believes or respects his tales of purity, innocence, or voice of fair play, honor, and romance.

[kalliegrace · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

4.5 rounded up, this is ridiculous in all the right ways, though maybe a bit overshot in length. How absurd and endearing is this knight errant, and how cruel the world is to one out of his mind.

[gmillar_8 · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

The tomfoolery of the stories got through to me pretty quickly. I didn't hate them, but I didn't love them either. There is an interesting little bio of Cervantes included behind the selected stories and a list of questions for the English teachers to stretch their students.

[laphenix · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

When is it ever a good idea to write a book belaboring how much you dislike books of a similar genre. 900 plus sometimes interesting, occasionally funny pages for an ending which laments it was hardly worthwhile.

[jonbrammer-788089 · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

Don Quixote can be riotously funny, boring and repetitive, and troubling. Cervantes' strength lies in the repartee between Sancho and the Don. The pastoral and romantic tales embedded in the novel are somewhat generic and the characters vanilla. Cervantes might be satirizing these stories, juxtaposing them with the rough realism of Quixote's adventures - pointing out that these idealized stories don't happen in the real world without a whole host of mundane associated problems (what does one eat? where does one defecate? what happens when two men hit each other with lances?)

There is a lot of melancholy and cruelty here, as noted by Nietzsche, Kafka and Nabokov. I also understand why Dostoevsky was so influenced by this story - the Knight of the Sorrowful face represents the Christian ideal of taking on suffering for the good of the world, as seen in his novels by Sonya Marmeladova and Alyosha Karamazov.

[sjh4255 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Wow! What a book! Such a fun read, following in the steps of the greatest knight ever, Don Quixote and his squire Sancho Panza. The book will have you laughing out loud, sad, angry, confused and every other emotion you can think of. Definitely a book to remember, with so many writing techniques used, but not over the top or boring. Don Quixote is the most intelligent madman ever to be written about. Some highlights for me were the advice that Don gives to Sancho when he leaves for his "leadership" position. Advice that survives through the ages. Kudos also goes out to the translator of the book from Spanish, Edith Grossman, a monumental task indeed, but creates a thrilling story that would probably make Cervantes proud. Although, this is the type of book that makes me want to learn spanish, just so I can read it in the original format that Cervantes wrote it. I also loved Sancho's constant usage of proverbs, and how much it pissed off Don Quixote. The relationship between the two is worth the read on it's own. Definitely a keeper! It's long, but oh so worth it.

[farrhon · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Awfully meta for the 1500’s. Delightful.

[beauxarts79 · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

Laugh-out-loud funny. Touching. Educational without pedantry. Far more readable than I'd expected. Exotic glimpses of Greece, Algiers, Constantinople. Romance, betrayal, war, secret identities, slapstick comedy, dangerous sea voyages, serendipitous reunions. Tremendous fun. Interminable, but fun.

[baswood · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Many people have heard of Don Quixote (or Don Quijote in this translation), but to read both volumes of the book takes some reading commitment. It was the next book on my shelf and although not unread; I had read it such a long time ago I had only a vague impression. Reading today a revised translation by Diana De Armas Wilson with its introduction by the original translator Burton Raffel was very much in keeping with Miguel de Cervantes claiming that his Don Quijote was a translation from the Arabic historian Cide Hamete Benengeli, which put me in tune with the meta fictional aspects of this book.

It has been labelled as the first novel ever written, (first volume published in 1605), but I can vouch to the fact that this is not true having read novels from the previous century. It's claim to be the first modern novel bears more consideration, as from my reading experience it shines like a beacon of light, a sort of lighthouse beacon which lights the way for character development and interior reflections, authorial interventions, open ended interpretations, and endless discussions on the aims and objectives of the author. The dark side of the lighthouse beacon is its disparagement of the subject matter of the popular fiction of its time, the books of chivalry: knights in armour riding out to do fantastic deeds. These are the very books that caused Don Quijote to go insane. He was of the opinion that all the stories written on chivalry must be historically accurate, because they were printed in books. Why would anyone write about things that were not true, that did not happen. There is a scene very early on in the first volume when Don Quijote has returned exhausted from his first adventure and the priest and the barber go through his library throwing out of the window all the bad books on chivalry that they intend to burn.

The basic premise of the novel is that a rich landowner Don Quijote has become infatuated and addicted to books of chivalry and takes it upon himself to revive the whole idea of knight errantry. Cervantes says:

"Indeed his mind was so tattered and torn that finally, it produced the strangest notion any madman ever conceived, and then considered it not just appropriate but inevitable. As much for the sake of his own greater honour as for his duty to the nation, he decided to turn himself into a knight errant, travelling all over the world with his horse and his weapons, seeking adventures and doing everything that, according to his books, earlier knights had done, righting every manner of wrong, giving himself the opportunity to experience every sort of danger, so that surmounting them all, he would cover himself with eternal fame and glory"

Don Quijote recruits an employee of his Sancho Panza to be his squire and saddles up his old horse Rocinante, puts on some old armour and together they ride out; Sancho Panza on his beloved donkey, looking for adventures. Not only is Don Quijote insane, but he also suffers from hallucinations, seeing wayside inns as castles, windmills as giants, and herds of sheep as a marauding army. He also dreams of an impossibly beautiful woman who will be the love of his life and to whom he will dedicate his conquests: the matchless Dulcinea del Tobolso. Tobolso is a town near where Don Quijote lives and he might have caught sight of a pretty girl there.

There have been many interpretations of Don Quijote. A ribald, knockabout, slapstick comedy; there are certainly many funny incidents along the way that can make the reader laugh out loud. A loveable idealist who follows his heart and an unflappable optimist. A tragic hero figure in the best traditions of a romantic interpretation. Christians might interpret him as a Christ like figure, or that it is a cabalistic Jewish text. Some may think it is an allegory of Spanish politics or an attack on romantic chivalry that Cervantes claims it to be. It is in my opinion primarily a novel about insanity, self delusion and how other people handle, care for, or make fun of people who are insane. Don Quijote's sanity comes and goes, in book two his periods of lucidity increase until he returns home almost cured of his delusions. During his adventures people are often surprised by his educated response to questions, he gives Sancho Panza excellent advice on how to be a governor of a municipality. Don Quijote's insanity leads inevitably to mood swings, he is easily angered and in fact twice tries to kill Sancho Panza.

Many classic works are infused with thoughts and ideas about writing and literature and Don Quijote is no exception to this. The prologue of the book addressed to the idle reader written by Cervantes talks about the difficulties of writing the prologue, reminding readers that he is only the stepfather to the book not its parent. He then tells of a conversation with a friend who tells him shortcuts to write a successful piece of literature. Throughout the actual novel there are pauses where Cervantes reflects on the art of writing.

The two volumes were printed nine years apart and in the second volume the metafictional aspects take another turn. We are told that Don Quijote has become famous, because people have read about his exploits in the first volume. He starts to be recognised and some people take advantage of his fame. He complains however, that there seems to be two Don Quijote's riding around; one who is a bit of an idiot and one who is accomplishing good deeds, one book is poorly written while the other can stand up as a piece of literature. This together with authorial interventions, perhaps by the parent: Cide Hamete Benengali or perhaps the step father Cervantes himself adds further to the innovations that are introduced by the author.

The two volumes together make a superb reading experience. There are Don Quijote's sometimes rather puzzling exploits, there are stories within stories. There are two tremendous characters in the knight himself and his proverb loving squire Sancho Panza, who develop characteristics from each other. The stories are funny, sometimes violent, sometimes contemporary to that period of Spanish rule: the expulsion of the Moors and the jews feature heavily. Of course the reader rides along with Don Quijote sucking up the atmosphere of Spain in the early 17th century wondering about the next adventure that will befall the insane duo and caring about the health of the duo as well as despairing about the damage they cause. The Norton Critical Edition contains an excellent introduction and a beautiful translation. The criticism section however, leaves something to be desired. I know it is difficult to come to a conclusion about the main theme or thrust of this novel, but most of the extracts focus on individual stories. Some attempt at an overall impression would have been welcome. It is a book that one can return to and enjoy individual stories and exploits, with the whole scope of the book firmly in mind. Wonderful and a five star read.

[debs4jc · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

I did it, I read this long classic novel. It has a lot of parts that were funnier than I expected. Don Quixote and Sancho indulge in a lot of witty banter! There is even some potty humor. Some parts are long "stories within the story" where they run into another person and then he or she tells them a long story of their exploits. Of course the main premise is that Don Quixote wants to be a knight errant just like in the books he has read so he dresses up like a knight and looks for adventure, most of which are in his imagination. He thinks a flock of sheep is an opposing army and that windmills are giants, for example. He is like a modern day cos-player but he's from the 15th or 16th century. And the book is really long, it's like a soap opera that went on for several seasons and then was all written down. It's a fascinating look at life back then, and one of the first "novels" ever written. The audio version is a great way to experience it. But I'll totally understand if you' don't make it all the way to the end - it does get long and I maybe got a bit tired of it by the end.

[grlopez-99457 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

This was my third read, but I quit before the end of the first part. I was taking too long to read it.

[jdaneway · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

In my humble opinion, this is one of the greatest works of all time, but I will provide a different kind of review here. I was lucky enough to read this while traveling in Spain for a few months. I attended a Department of Medicine lecture at the University in Salamanca on the medicinal herbs collected by Don Quixote. If ever you can read a relevant work while traveling in the country of origin, I highly recommend it. I bought the book at a bookstore in Fuengirola where they were giving a reading in English. We toured the Don Quixote trail (there are sign posts of places mentioned in the book). It's a fun way to have a greater cultural and historical appreciation.

[dualmon · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

Suprisingly modern and femenist

[paul_s-289480 · Calificación: 2 de 5 estrellas]

Didn't make me laugh. It's a jumble of unconnected stories and if there's something to be read in-between the gags then I have failed. The main characters are worthy of their iconic status but the stories themselves are joyless.

[ldvoorberg · Calificación: 2 de 5 estrellas]

Finally finished! Such a long book, and the small compact print in my copy did not make reading any easier. It took well over 200 pages (i estimate) to really feel comfortable with the writing style (or translation, really). Likely it is the decision of the translator, but I did feel there was many thematic and stylistic similarities to Shakespeare's plays.
All of the adventures play into classic knight folklore, primarily maiden misled by rogue and separated lovers often by fathers. A lot of long-winded narratives that are truly boring in our current era, even one slowed by a corona virus.
Reading this unabridged version was my own mad determination or enchantment. I am now free, without suffering lashes. Just a sore hand from holding open such a large thick book.
Perhaps the only time I will say this, but do yourself the favour: Read an abridged version.

[nx74defiant · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

Long, originally published as two books.

[kristelh_15 · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

I read this several years ago, 2012. I wasn't fully engaged. There were parts that were very fun. It is a classic and I probably would benefit if I read it again.

[alanwpowers · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

I have taught Don Quixote in a sophomore Norton Anthology survey of “World”/Western Literature many times, aided by this Spanish edition I got at Princeton in ’78. Larry Lipking led a post-doctoral NEH seminar on comparative Lit, on Poetry and Criticism, and my own Ph.D. had studied 17C criticism written in verse, before Dryden made prose the main form of poetic criticism.
Fortuitously, the main chapter I read in Spanish was one omitted from Norton. After Señor Quijana is knighted by his landlord, swearing on “the book”—farmer’s accounts of grain purchases and sales—he falls from his horse. His injury results now in Don Quixote’s reciting whole memorized chapters from books of chivalry in his library. The priest and a barber, his friends, blame their friends’ accident on his reading such books, and planning to star in one. The niece urges them to burn those damnable books as though they were heretics’.
After the Knight is carried in to his bed, and before he recruits a neighbor farmer, Sancho Panza, to abandon his wife and children to be his squire as he attacks the windmills, Cervantes lists the accused books in Ch. 6, which makes it a chapter of Literary Criticism. Dozens are cited. Amusingly, one of these books was written by Cervantes himself, “La Galatea de Miguel de Cervantes—dijo el Barbero” (41). The priest claims he knows most of the authors, as he does here: “Muchos años ha que es grande amigo mio ese Cervantes.” He holds Cervantes writes with great “creativity” (“invention” the Renaissance word for it), but he wishes Cervantes would finish the second half of the book he promised (41).
The priest got on to defend the poet who translated Ovid, and wrote the best heroic verse in Spanish, in Castillian. “I would cry if such a book were burned,” lloraralas yo si tal libro hubiera mandado quemar."

[bookconcierge · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

Audible audio performed by George Guidall


Who hasn’t heard of Don Quixote fighting windmills, or wearing a barber’s basin as a helmet? Who doesn’t know about his faithful squire, Sancho Panza? Or the beautiful Dulcinea, for whom the Knight is ready to lay down his life?

I’d read snippets from this work over the years but never experienced the whole thing. I’m sorry I waited so long to do so. It is a marvelous piece of fiction and is widely acknowledged as the first modern-day novel.

Cervantes gives us a main character who has lofty ideals and a noble purpose, but who is fatally flawed (possibly insane). His attempts to replicate the feats of chivalry he has long read about and admired are met with scorn and ridicule, yet he remains faithful to his ideal. Certain that he will save the imprisoned Dulcinea and win her heart and everlasting gratitude.

Sancho is the faithful servant, commenting frequently in pithy sayings and proverbs, trying, in vain to steer his master away from disaster, but gamely following and taking his punishment. My favorite section is toward the end when Sancho is “appointed governor” and asked to hand out judgment on a variety of disputes. His solutions are surprisingly wise, despite his convoluted explanations.

This edition is translated by Edith Grossman, and was published in 2003. While I have not read other translations, nor the original Spanish, I thought it flowed smoothly and gave me a sense of Cervantes’ style.

The audiobook of this translation is performed by George Guidall, and he does a fantastic job of it. I was fully engaged and recalled those long-ago days when my grandparents, aunts or uncles would tell stories on the porch on summer evenings, all us children listening in rapt attention. I particularly liked the voices he used for both Don Quixote and for Sancho Panza.

[browner56 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Some time ago, I sat through a series of art history lectures offered at our church. The minister giving the talks was the perfect person to discuss Renaissance-era paintings, having received a MFA in addition to a divinity degree. He was also someone I knew well enough to ask what I had always feared was a really dumb question: When you go into a museum and see two seemingly comparable paintings displayed side by side, why does one usually get a lot more attention (e.g. written descriptions on the wall, guidebook space) than the other? There can be many reasons, he said, but the simple answer is that the artwork getting all the love is usually the one that came first.

I thought about that observation frequently as I was reading Don Quixote, which is widely hailed in critical circles as the first modern novel. (And, at just shy of 1,000 pages, I had plenty of time to think about a lot of things during the several weeks it took me to finish the book.) I have to confess that I was not even sure what being labeled the first modern novel even meant. However, the more time I spent immersed in the volume, the more sense that designation made. For as much as I enjoyed the inventiveness of the story, I think I enjoyed considering the historical importance of the work and the influence it has had on literature over the subsequent centuries even more.

As I learned, the present-day version of Don Quixote actually consists of two separate novels that Cervantes wrote about ten years apart. Both parts of the book tell the same well-known tale. An aging Spanish gentleman becomes so obsessed with reading novels on chivalry that he goes “mad” and fancies himself a knight errant, whose duty it is to right wrongs wherever he finds them in the world. Pledging his chaste love and obedience to the lady Dulcinea—who, in reality, is a relatively ordinary peasant woman he barely knows—he sets out across the country on several sallies, eventually accompanied by Sancho Panza, a poor local farmer who serves as his squire.

The myriad adventures the two men have tend to take on a similar form: in his delusional state, Don Quixote confuses an ordinary situation as a threat or a challenge that needs to be addressed (e.g., windmills confused for giant villains to be vanquished), which the simple but sensible Sancho tries to talk him out of. When the encounter goes badly for the heroes, Quixote is quick to blame the work of evil enchanters who are out to get him, rather than accept failure or the possibility that he simply misread the circumstances. This basic plot device is repeated over and over again—accompanied by a considerable amount of philosophical discourse between the knight and the squire—much of which is amusing and, occasionally, memorable.

For me, the second half of the novel was considerably more interesting and rewarding than the first. It is also the part of the book where the “modern” label becomes more apparent. Indeed, the author himself (often in the guise of his Arabic alter-ego Cide Hamete Benengeli) becomes a third central character in the story in a very clever way. While on their adventures in this section, Quixote and Panza often meet people who already know them from having read the first half of the book and are only too happy to encourage their delusional behavior. Also, the author has the Don’s character berate another real-life writer who had produced an unauthorized plagiarism of the Quixote saga in the years between the two volumes that Cervantes himself wrote. That is not only modern, it is down-right post-modern!

In summary, Don Quixote is an altogether remarkable and entertaining book that was also, at times, absolutely exhausting to read. I do not imagine that I will ever find the time or the energy to read it again, but I am so happy to have made it all the way through this once. There are some who rank it among the best novels ever written and I cannot argue too strenuously with that position.

[bookworm12_1 · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

Don Quixote has always intimidated me. The novel is a literary giant, my own windmill to conquer. This year, over the course of a couple months, I finally read it. I was surprised by the gentle nature and sincerity of the famous knight. I’d always thought of him as a bit clownish, but in reality he is the most human of men, if that makes sense. He’s deeply flawed and so he’s deeply relatable.

I didn’t realize when I started the book that it consists of two separate volumes published 10 years apart. The first volume includes most of the well-known elements of the story, including Don Quixote’s famous attack on the windmills. In the second volume everyone knows who Don Quixote is because they've read the first volume. It adds an interesting element to the book, because he is now trying to live up to his own legend. He's become a celebrity and his cause and condition have become well known throughout the land.
Alonso Quixano is Don Quixote’s true name. He reads book after book dealing with stories of chivalry throughout the ages. He then becomes convinced that he is in fact a knight errant and he must go on a crusade to help the people who are suffering in Spain.

“It is not the responsibility of knights errant to discover whether the afflicted, the enchained and the oppressed whom they encounter on the road are reduced to these circumstances and suffer this distress for their vices, or for their virtues: the knight's sole responsibility is to succour them as people in need, having eyes only for their sufferings, not for their misdeeds.”

He saddles up his horse, Rocinante, and recruits a local farmer named Sancho Panza to embark on his travels with him. Sancho becomes his faithful squire. The two set off and along the way they “help” those who cross their path. The problem is that Don Quixote is delusional about who actually needs his help. The famous windmill scene comes about because he thinks he is fighting giants. He fights for the honor of a woman who barely knows him, Dulcinea del Toboso. The first volume contains a strange mix of stories. Everyone is able to see the Don’s madness except himself and his proverb-spouting squire. Though this is tragic in some ways, it’s also beautiful. There’s something about having complete faith in another person that gives you strength in your own life.

The first volume is entertaining, but lacks the depth I was expecting. It wasn’t until I got into the second volume that I really fell in love with the book. There’s such a wonderful exploration of motivation, delusion, loyalty, and more. Who is Don Quixote hurting with his quest? Is it wrong to allow him to remain convinced of his knighthood? The second volume also pokes playful fun at the first volume, joking that the author exaggerated stories, etc.

“The truth may be stretched thin, but it never breaks, and it always surfaces above lies, as oil floats on water.”

Don Quixote’s naïveté and earnestness about his field of knight errantry make him an easy target. People who want to play tricks on him or friendly jokes or even rob him are easily able to because they know exactly what his weaknesses are. He believes, without a doubt, in the code of knight errantry that he holds himself to. He's also wise about so many things while remaining blind to his own absurdity.

At times he reminded me of Polonius from “Hamlet” spouting off wisdom to anyone who will listen. Sometimes it's good advice, sometimes not but he believes it wholeheartedly. There's a purity in living a life so full of earnestness that you believe in your dreams without faltering and you hold yourself to a higher standard.

BOTTOM LINE: This isn’t a novel I’ll re-read every year or anything, but it was a richly rewarding experience for me. It made me want to believe in some of the magic in life and to not always question the motives of others. Don Quixote and Sancho Panza will be with me for years to come.

"Then the very same thing, said the knight, happens in the comedy and commerce of this world, where one meets with some people playing the parts of emperors, others in the characters of popes, and finally, all the different personages that can be introduced in a comedy; but, when the play is done, that is, when life is at an end, death strips them of the robes that distinguished their stations, and they become all equal in the grave.”

“Time ripens all things. No man is born wise.”

[brakketh-1 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Just amazing, I can see why it is often described as a foundation of the modern novel. In many ways it reads like it was written last week rather than more than 400 years ago.

[jhemlock-1711 · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

One of the most widely read stories in human history. Pretty cut and dry. He is a lunatic.

[joligula · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

One of the most widely read stories in human history. Pretty cut and dry. He is a lunatic.

[pilgrimjess · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

"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.

[encephalical · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

Really enjoyed the bantering between Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, unfortunately, they often get separated for multiple chapters at a time. Had trouble caring about the other side stories and digressions.

[antao-3 · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

“El que lee mucho y anda mucho, ve mucho y sabe mucho.”


In "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes

Don Quixote is one of my favourite novels, exasperating though it is at times with all those stories within stories knockabout humour and cruel practical jokes. Simply because it’s so complex, we both admire and laugh at Don Quixote. When he speaks we are inclined to share his world view. And then Cervantes reminds us of what a ridiculous figure he is and undermines the effect. Until Quixote opens his mouth again. This happens again and again - until we end up seeing the novel - and the world - in two incompatible ways at once. And the relationship between Quixote and Sancho is one of the most beautiful friendships in literature. And then there are all the meta-fictional or postmodern tricks. There’s just so much to talk about.

Violent slapstick isn’t to everyone’s taste and four hundred-year-old Spanish satire, where you have to read the footnotes to get the punch line, is … tricky. There is not in all the world’s literature, and that of the universe, as far as we know, and if you follow positivist logic, being as no other life has as of yet been detected, two palsy and yet hierarchised figures whose genial, sharp, philosophical and jocoserious dialogue, and whose philosophical adventures, bring them so endearing and humanly close to each other as the “Distinguidos” Señores Alonso Quijano and Sancho Panza. It is worth it to learn Spanish and travel the entire peninsula, which Alberti said looks like the hide of a bull, just to appreciate the impressive genius with which a writer can glean and reproduce in words the soul of his land.

Cervantes also proves being a misogynist does not preclude great literature. Nor does being a violent, macho hypocrite. Hemingway sends his regards.

[amerynth · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

I feel like I should throw myself a party having finally finished Miguel de Cervantes' "Don Quixote," which took me about two months to read. It was overall a worthwhile read, even though it sometimes became a bit tedious, it was mostly an interesting book.

As most people are probably aware, Don Quixote goes a bit off his rocker, becomes a knight errant and crisscrosses the countryside with his trusty squire Sancho Panza. They get into heaps of trouble while he tilts at windmills, which he believes are dragons, and pining for the love of the Dulcinea de Toboso, whom he believes is enchanted and trapped in a cave. As Don Quixote's reputation spread, people take advantage of his madness for their own amusement.

While I felt first portion of the book got a bit repetitive, Cervantes seemed to get better as he went along about putting Don Quixote in new amusing situations. This is definitely one of those classic books I'm happy to have finally read, but that I probably would never read again.