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= Don_Quixote =
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Introduction
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, the full title being 'The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La
Mancha', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally
published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a
founding work of Western literature and is often said to be the first
modern novel. The novel has been labelled by many well-known authors
as the "best novel of all time" and the "best and most central work in
world literature". 'Don Quixote' is also one of the most-translated
books in the world and one of the best-selling novels of all time.
The plot revolves around the adventures of a member of the lowest
nobility, an hidalgo from La Mancha named Alonso Quijano, who reads so
many chivalric romances that he loses his mind and decides to become a
knight-errant () to revive chivalry and serve his nation, under the
name . He recruits as his squire a simple farm labourer, Sancho Panza,
who brings an earthy wit to Don Quixote's lofty rhetoric. In the first
part of the book, Don Quixote does not see the world for what it is
and prefers to imagine that he is living out a knightly story meant
for the annals of all time. However, as Salvador de Madariaga pointed
out in his 'Guía del lector del Quijote' (1972 [1926]), referring to
"the Sanchification of Don Quixote and the Quixotization of Sancho",
as "Sancho's spirit ascends from reality to illusion, Don Quixote's
declines from illusion to reality".
The book had a major influence on the literary community, as evidenced
by direct references in Alexandre Dumas's 'The Three Musketeers'
(1844), and Edmond Rostand's 'Cyrano de Bergerac' (1897) as well as
the word 'quixotic'. Mark Twain referred to the book as having "swept
the world's admiration for the mediaeval chivalry-silliness out of
existence". It has been described by some as the greatest work ever
written.
Summary
======================================================================
For Cervantes and the readers of his day, 'Don Quixote' was a
one-volume book published in 1605, divided internally into four parts,
not the first part of a two-part set. The mention in the 1605 book of
further adventures yet to be told was totally conventional, did not
indicate any authorial plans for a continuation, and was not taken
seriously by the book's first readers.
The first sally
=================
Cervantes, in a metafictional narrative, writes that the first few
chapters were taken from "the archives of La Mancha", and the rest
were translated from an Arabic text by the Moorish historian Cide
Hamete Benengeli.
Alonso Quixano is a hidalgo nearing 50 years of age who lives in a
deliberately unspecified region of La Mancha with his niece and
housekeeper. While he lives a frugal life, he is full of fantasies
about chivalry stemming from his obsession with chivalric romance
books. Eventually, his obsession becomes madness when he decides to
become a knight errant, donning an old suit of armor. He renames
himself "Don Quixote", names his old workhorse "Rocinante", and
designates Aldonza Lorenzo (a slaughterhouse worker with a famed hand
for salting pork) his lady love, renaming her Dulcinea del Toboso.
As he travels in search of adventure, he arrives at an inn that he
believes to be a castle, calls the prostitutes he meets there
"ladies", and demands that the innkeeper, whom he takes to be the lord
of the castle, dub him a knight. The innkeeper agrees. Quixote starts
the night holding vigil at the inn's horse trough, which Quixote
imagines to be a chapel. He then becomes involved in a fight with
muleteers who try to remove his armor from the horse trough to water
their mules. In a pretend ceremony, the innkeeper dubs him a knight to
be rid of him and sends him on his way.
Quixote next encounters a servant named Andres who is tied to a tree
and being beaten by his master over disputed wages. Quixote orders the
master to stop the beating, untie Andres and swear to treat his
servant fairly. However, the beating is resumed, and redoubled, as
soon as Quixote leaves.
Quixote then chances upon traders from Toledo. He demands that they
agree that Dulcinea del Toboso is the most beautiful woman in the
world. One of them demands to see her picture so that he can decide
for himself. Enraged, Quixote charges at them but his horse stumbles,
causing him to fall. One of the traders beats up Quixote, who is left
at the side of the road until a neighboring peasant brings him back
home.
While Quixote lies unconscious in his bed, his niece, the housekeeper,
the parish curate, and the local barber burn most of his chivalric and
other books, seeing them as the root of his madness. They seal up the
library room, later telling Quixote that it was done by a wizard.
The second sally
==================
Don Quixote asks his neighbour, the poor farm labourer Sancho Panza,
to be his squire, promising him a petty governorship. Sancho agrees
and they sneak away at dawn. Their adventures together begin with
Quixote's attack on some windmills which he believes to be ferocious
giants. They next encounter two Benedictine friars and, nearby, an
unrelated lady in a carriage. Quixote takes the friars to be
enchanters who are holding the lady captive, knocks one of them from
his horse, and is challenged by an armed Basque travelling with the
company. The combat ends with the lady leaving her carriage and
begging him not to harm the Basque.
After a friendly encounter with some goatherds and a less friendly one
with some Yanguesan porters driving Galician ponies, Quixote and
Sancho enter an inn owned by Juan Palomeque, where a mix-up involving
a servant girl's romantic rendezvous with another guest results in a
brawl. Quixote explains to Sancho that the inn is enchanted. They
decide to leave, but Quixote, following the example of the fictional
knights, leaves without paying. Sancho ends up wrapped in a blanket
and tossed in the air by several mischievous guests at the inn before
he manages to follow.
After further adventures involving a dead body, a barber's basin that
Quixote imagines as the legendary helmet of Mambrino, and a group of
galley slaves, they wander into the Sierra Morena. There they
encounter the dejected and mostly mad Cardenio, who relates his story.
Inspired by Cardenio, Quixote decides to imitate what he has read in
his chivalric romances and live like a hermit in a display of devotion
to Dulcinea. He sends Sancho to deliver a letter to Dulcinea, but
instead Sancho finds the barber and priest from his village. They make
a plan to trick Quixote into coming home, recruiting Dorotea, a woman
they discover in the forest, to pose as the Princess Micomicona, a
damsel in distress.
The plan works and Quixote and the group return to the inn, though
Quixote is now convinced, thanks to a lie told by Sancho when asked
about the letter, that Dulcinea wants to see him. At the inn, several
other plots intersect and are resolved. Meanwhile, a sleepwalking
Quixote does battle with some wineskins which he takes to be the giant
who stole the princess Micomicona's kingdom. An officer of the Santa
Hermandad arrives with a warrant for Quixote's arrest for freeing the
galley slaves, but the priest begs for the officer to have mercy on
account of Quixote's insanity. The officer agrees and Quixote is
locked in a cage which he is made to think is an enchantment. He has a
learned conversation with a Toledo canon he encounters by chance on
the road, in which the canon expresses his scorn for untruthful
chivalric books, but Don Quixote defends them. The group stops to eat
and lets Quixote out of the cage; he gets into a fight with a goatherd
and with a group of pilgrims, who beat him into submission, before he
is finally brought home.
The narrator ends the story by saying that he has found manuscripts of
Quixote's further adventures.
Part 2
========
Although the two parts are now published as a single work, 'Don
Quixote, Part Two' was a sequel published ten years after the original
novel. In an early example of metafiction, Part Two indicates that
several of its characters have read the first part of the novel and
are thus familiar with the history and peculiarities of the two
protagonists.
The third sally
=================
Don Quixote and Sancho are on their way to El Toboso to meet Dulcinea,
with Sancho aware that his story about Dulcinea was a complete
fabrication. They reach the city at daybreak and decide to enter at
nightfall. However, a bad omen frightens Quixote into retreat and they
quickly leave. Sancho is instead sent out alone by Quixote to meet
Dulcinea and act as a go-between. Sancho's luck brings three peasant
girls along the road and he quickly tells Quixote that they are
Dulcinea and her ladies-in-waiting and as beautiful as ever. Since
Quixote only sees the peasant girls, Sancho goes on to pretend that an
enchantment of some sort is at work.
A duke and duchess encounter the duo. These nobles have read Part One
of the story and are themselves very fond of books of chivalry. They
decide to play along for their own amusement, beginning a string of
imagined adventures and practical jokes. As part of one prank, Quixote
and Sancho are led to believe that the only way to release Dulcinea
from her spell is for Sancho to give himself three thousand three
hundred lashes. Sancho naturally resists this course of action,
leading to friction with his master. Under the duke's patronage,
Sancho eventually gets his promised governorship, though it is false,
and he proves to be a wise and practical ruler before all ends in
humiliation. Near the end, Don Quixote reluctantly sways towards
sanity.
Quixote battles the Knight of the White Moon (a young man from
Quixote's hometown who had earlier posed as the Knight of Mirrors) on
the beach in Barcelona. Defeated, Quixote submits to prearranged
chivalric terms: the vanquished must obey the will of the conqueror.
He is ordered to lay down his arms and cease his acts of chivalry for
a period of one year, by which time his friends and relatives hope he
will be cured.
On the way back home, Quixote and Sancho "resolve" the disenchantment
of Dulcinea. Upon returning to his village, Quixote announces his plan
to retire to the countryside as a shepherd, but his housekeeper urges
him to stay at home. Soon after, he retires to his bed with a deathly
illness, and later awakes from a dream, having fully become Alonso
Quixano once more. Sancho tries to restore his faith and his interest
in Dulcinea, but Quixano only renounces his previous ambition and
apologizes for the harm he has caused. He dictates his will, which
includes a provision that his niece will be disinherited if she
marries a man who reads books of chivalry.
After Quixano dies, the author emphasizes that there are no more
adventures to relate and that any further books about Don Quixote
would be spurious.
Other stories
===============
'Don Quixote, Part One' contains a number of stories which do not
directly involve the two main characters, but which are narrated by
some of the picaresque figures encountered by the Don and Sancho
during their travels. The longest and best known of these is "El
Curioso Impertinente" ('The Ill-Advised Curiosity'), found in Part
One, Book Four. This story, read to a group of travelers at an inn,
tells of a Florentine nobleman, Anselmo, who becomes obsessed with
testing his wife's fidelity and talks his close friend Lothario into
attempting to seduce her, with disastrous results for all.
In 'Part Two', the author acknowledges the criticism of his
digressions in 'Part One' and promises to concentrate the narrative on
the central characters (although at one point he laments that his
narrative muse has been constrained in this manner). Nevertheless,
"Part Two" contains several back narratives related by peripheral
characters.
Several abridged editions have been published which delete some or all
of the extra tales in order to concentrate on the central narrative.
''The Ill-Advised Curiosity'' summary
=======================================
The story within a story relates that, for no particular reason,
Anselmo decides to test the fidelity of his wife, Camilla, and asks
his friend, Lothario, to seduce her. Thinking that to be madness,
Lothario reluctantly agrees, and soon reports to Anselmo that Camilla
is a faithful wife. Anselmo learns that Lothario has lied and
attempted no seduction. He makes Lothario promise to try in earnest
and leaves town to make this easier. Lothario tries and Camilla writes
letters to her husband telling him of the attempts by Lothario and
asking him to return. Anselmo makes no reply and does not return.
Lothario then falls in love with Camilla, who eventually reciprocates;
an affair between them ensues, but is not disclosed to Anselmo, and
their affair continues after Anselmo returns.
One day, Lothario sees a man leaving Camilla's house and jealously
presumes she has taken another lover. He tells Anselmo that, at last,
he has been successful and arranges a time and place for Anselmo to
see the seduction. Before this rendezvous, however, Lothario learns
that the man was the lover of Camilla's maid. He and Camilla then
contrive to deceive Anselmo further: When Anselmo watches them, she
refuses Lothario, protests her love for her husband, and stabs herself
lightly in the breast. Anselmo is reassured of her fidelity. The
affair restarts with Anselmo none the wiser.
Later, the maid's lover is discovered by Anselmo. Fearing that Anselmo
will kill her, the maid says she will tell Anselmo a secret the next
day. Anselmo tells Camilla that this is to happen, and Camilla expects
that her affair is to be revealed. Lothario and Camilla flee that
night. The maid flees the next day. Anselmo searches for them in vain
before learning from a stranger of his wife's affair. He starts to
write the story, but dies of grief before he can finish. Lothario is
killed in battle soon afterward and Camilla dies of grief.
Use of language
=================
The novel's farcical elements make use of punning and similar verbal
playfulness. Character-naming in 'Don Quixote' makes ample figural use
of contradiction, inversion, and irony, such as the names 'Rocinante'
(a reversal) and 'Dulcinea' (an allusion to illusion), and the word
itself, possibly a pun on (jaw) but certainly (Catalan: thighs), a
reference to a horse's rump.
As a military term, the word 'quijote' refers to 'cuisses', part of a
full suit of plate armour protecting the thighs. The Spanish suffix
'-ote' denotes the augmentative--for example, 'grande' means large,
but 'grandote' means extra large, with grotesque connotations.
Following this example, 'Quixote' would suggest 'The Great Quijano',
an oxymoronic play on words that makes much sense in light of the
character's delusions of grandeur.
Cervantes wrote his work in Early Modern Spanish, heavily borrowing
from Old Spanish, the medieval form of the language. The language of
'Don Quixote', although still containing archaisms, is far more
understandable to modern Spanish readers than is, for instance, the
completely medieval Spanish of the 'Poema de mio Cid', a kind of
Spanish that is as different from Cervantes' language as Middle
English is from Modern English. The Old Castilian language was also
used to show the higher class that came with being a knight errant.
In 'Don Quixote', there are basically two different types of
Castilian: Old Castilian is spoken only by Don Quixote, while the rest
of the roles speak a contemporary (late 16th century) version of
Spanish. The Old Castilian of Don Quixote is a humoristic resource--he
copies the language spoken in the chivalric books that drove him to
madness; and many times when he talks nobody is able to understand him
because his language is too old. This humorous effect is more
difficult to see nowadays because the reader must be able to
distinguish the two old versions of the language, but when the book
was published it was much celebrated. (English translations can get
some sense of the effect by having Don Quixote use King James Bible or
Shakespearean English, or even Middle English.)
In Old Castilian, the letter 'x' represented the sound written 'sh' in
modern English, so the name was originally pronounced . However, as
Old Castilian evolved towards modern Spanish, a sound change caused it
to be pronounced with a voiceless velar fricative sound (like the
Scots or German 'ch'), and today the Spanish pronunciation of
"Quixote" is . The original pronunciation is reflected in languages
such as Asturian, Leonese, Galician, Catalan, Italian, Portuguese,
Turkish and French, where it is pronounced with a "sh" or "ch" sound;
the French opera 'Don Quichotte' is one of the best-known modern
examples of this pronunciation.
Today, English speakers generally attempt something close to the
modern Spanish pronunciation of 'Quixote' ('Quijote'), as , although
the traditional English spelling-based pronunciation with the value of
the letter x in modern English is still sometimes used, resulting in
or . In Australian English, the preferred pronunciation amongst
members of the educated classes was until well into the 1970s, as
part of a tendency for the upper class to "anglicise its borrowing
ruthlessly". The traditional English rendering is preserved in the
pronunciation of the adjectival form 'quixotic', i.e., , defined by
'Merriam-Webster' as the foolishly impractical pursuit of ideals,
typically marked by rash and lofty romanticism.
Meaning
=========
Harold Bloom says 'Don Quixote' is the first modern novel, and that
the protagonist is at war with Freud's reality principle, which
accepts the necessity of dying. Bloom says that the novel has an
endless range of meanings, but that a recurring theme is the human
need to withstand suffering.
Edith Grossman, who wrote and published a highly acclaimed English
translation of the novel in 2003, says that the book is mostly meant
to move people into emotion using a systematic change of course, on
the verge of both tragedy and comedy at the same time. Grossman has
stated: The question is that Quixote has multiple interpretations
[...] and how do I deal with that in my translation. I'm going to
answer your question by avoiding it [...] so when I first started
reading the Quixote I thought it was the most tragic book in the
world, and I would read it and weep [...] As I grew older [...] my
skin grew thicker [...] and so when I was working on the translation I
was actually sitting at my computer and laughing out loud. This is
done [...] as Cervantes did it [...] by never letting the reader rest.
You are never certain that you truly got it. Because as soon as you
think you understand something, Cervantes introduces something that
contradicts your premise.
Themes
========
The novel's structure is episodic in form. The full title is
indicative of the tale's object, as (Spanish) means "quick with
inventiveness", marking the transition of modern literature from
dramatic to thematic unity. The novel takes place over a long period
of time, including many adventures united by common themes of the
nature of reality, reading, and dialogue in general.
Although burlesque on the surface, the novel, especially in its second
half, has served as an important thematic source not only in
literature but also in much of art and music, inspiring works by Pablo
Picasso and Richard Strauss. The contrasts between the tall, thin,
fancy-struck and idealistic Quixote and the fat diddy, world-weary
Panza is a motif echoed ever since the book's publication, and Don
Quixote's imaginings are the butt of outrageous and cruel practical
jokes in the novel.
Even faithful and simple Sancho is forced to deceive him at certain
points. The novel is considered a satire of orthodoxy, veracity and
even nationalism. In exploring the individualism of his characters,
Cervantes helped lead literary practice beyond the narrow convention
of the chivalric romance. He spoofs the chivalric romance through a
straightforward retelling of a series of acts that redound to the
knightly virtues of the hero. The character of Don Quixote became so
well known in its time that the word 'quixotic' was quickly adopted by
many languages. Characters such as Sancho Panza and Don Quixote's
steed, Rocinante, are emblems of Western literary culture. The phrase
"tilting at windmills" to describe an act of attacking imaginary
enemies (or an act of extreme idealism), derives from an iconic scene
in the book.
It stands in a unique position between medieval romance and the modern
novel. The former consists of disconnected stories featuring the same
characters and settings with little exploration of the inner life of
even the main character. The latter are usually focused on the
psychological evolution of their characters. In Part I, Quixote
imposes himself on his environment. By Part II, people know about him
through "having read his adventures", and so, he needs to do less to
maintain his image. By his deathbed, he has regained his sanity, and
is once more "Alonso Quixano the Good".
Background
======================================================================
The cave of Medrano (also known as the 'casa de Medrano') in
Argamasilla de Alba, which has been known since the beginning of the
17th century, and according to the tradition of Argamasilla de Alba,
was the prison of Miguel de Cervantes and the place where he conceived
and began to write his famous work "'Don Quixote de la Mancha'."
Sources
=========
Sources for 'Don Quixote' include the Castilian novel 'Amadis de
Gaula', which had enjoyed great popularity throughout the 16th
century. Another prominent source, which Cervantes evidently admires
more, is 'Tirant lo Blanch', which the priest describes in Chapter VI
of 'Quixote' as "the best book in the world." (However, the sense in
which it was "best" is much debated among scholars. Since the 19th
century, the passage has been called "the most difficult passage of
'Don Quixote'".) The scene of the book burning provides a list of
Cervantes's likes and dislikes about literature.
Cervantes makes a number of references to the Italian poem 'Orlando
furioso'. In chapter 10 of the first part of the novel, Don Quixote
says he must take the magical helmet of Mambrino, an episode from
Canto I of 'Orlando', and itself a reference to Matteo Maria Boiardo's
'Orlando innamorato'. The interpolated story in chapter 33 of Part
four of the First Part is a retelling of a tale from Canto 43 of
'Orlando', regarding a man who tests the fidelity of his wife.
Another important source appears to have been Apuleius's 'The Golden
Ass', one of the earliest known novels, a picaresque from late
classical antiquity. The wineskins episode near the end of the
interpolated tale "The Curious Impertinent" in chapter 35 of the first
part of 'Don Quixote' is a clear reference to Apuleius, and recent
scholarship suggests that the moral philosophy and the basic
trajectory of Apuleius's novel are fundamental to Cervantes' program.
Similarly, many of both Sancho's adventures in Part II and proverbs
throughout are taken from popular Spanish and Italian folklore.
Cervantes' experiences as a galley slave in Algiers also influenced
'Quixote'.
Medical theories may have also influenced Cervantes' literary process.
Cervantes had familial ties to the distinguished medical community.
His father, Rodrigo de Cervantes, and his great-grandfather, Juan Díaz
de Torreblanca, were surgeons. Additionally, his sister, Andrea de
Cervantes, was a nurse. He also befriended many individuals involved
in the medical field, in that he knew medical author Francisco Díaz,
an expert in urology, and royal doctor Antonio Ponce de Santa Cruz who
served as a personal doctor to both Philip III and Philip IV of Spain.
Apart from the personal relations Cervantes maintained within the
medical field, Cervantes' personal life was defined by an interest in
medicine. He frequently visited patients from the Hospital de
Inocentes in Sevilla. Furthermore, Cervantes explored medicine in his
personal library. His library contained more than 200 volumes and
included books like 'Examen de Ingenios', by Juan Huarte and 'Practica
y teórica de cirugía', by Dionisio Daza Chacón that defined medical
literature and medical theories of his time.
Researchers Isabel Sanchez Duque and Francisco Javier Escudero have
found that Cervantes was a friend of the family Villaseñor, which was
involved in a combat with Francisco de Acuña. Both sides combated
disguised as medieval knights in the road from El Toboso to Miguel
Esteban in 1581. They also found a person called Rodrigo Quijada, who
bought the title of nobility of "hidalgo", and created diverse
conflicts with the help of a squire.
Spurious ''Second Part'' by Avellaneda
========================================
It is not certain when Cervantes began writing 'Part Two' of 'Don
Quixote', but he had probably not proceeded much further than Chapter
LIX by late July 1614. In about September, however, a spurious Part
Two, entitled 'Second Volume of the Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of
La Mancha: by the Licenciado (doctorate) Alonso Fernández de
Avellaneda, of Tordesillas', was published in Tarragona by an
unidentified Aragonese who was an admirer of Lope de Vega, rival of
Cervantes. It was translated into English by William Augustus Yardley,
Esquire in two volumes in 1784.
Some modern scholars suggest that Don Quixote's fictional encounter
with Avellaneda's book in Chapter 59 of Part II should not be taken as
the date that Cervantes encountered it, which may have been much
earlier.
Avellaneda's identity has been the subject of many theories, but there
is no consensus as to who he was. In its prologue, the author
gratuitously insulted Cervantes, who took offense and responded; the
last half of Chapter LIX and most of the following chapters of
Cervantes's 'Segunda Parte' lend some insight into the effects upon
him; Cervantes manages to work in some subtle digs at Avellaneda's own
work, and in his preface to Part II, comes very near to criticizing
Avellaneda directly.
In his introduction to 'The Portable Cervantes', Samuel Putnam, a
noted translator of Cervantes' novel, calls Avellaneda's version "one
of the most disgraceful performances in history".
The second part of Cervantes' 'Don Quixote', finished as a direct
result of the Avellaneda book, has come to be regarded by some
literary critics as superior to the first part, because of its greater
depth of characterization, its discussions, mostly between Quixote and
Sancho, on diverse subjects, and its philosophical insights. In
Cervantes's 'Segunda Parte', Don Quixote visits a printing-house in
Barcelona and finds Avellaneda's 'Second Part' being printed there, in
an early example of metafiction. Don Quixote and Sancho Panza also
meet one of the characters from Avellaneda's book, Don Alvaro Tarfe,
and make him swear that the "other" Quixote and Sancho are impostors.
Location
==========
Cervantes' story takes place on the plains of La Mancha, specifically
the 'comarca' of Campo de Montiel.
The location of the village to which Cervantes alludes in the opening
sentence of 'Don Quixote' has been the subject of debate since its
publication over four centuries ago. Indeed, Cervantes deliberately
omits the name of the village, giving an explanation in the final
chapter:
In 2004, a team of academics from Complutense University, led by
Francisco Parra Luna, Manuel Fernández Nieto, and Santiago Petschen
Verdaguer, deduced that the village was that of Villanueva de los
Infantes. Their findings were published in a paper titled "El Quijote'
como un sistema de distancias/tiempos: hacia la localización del lugar
de la Mancha'", which was later published as a book: 'El enigma
resuelto del Quijote'. The result was replicated in two subsequent
investigations: "La determinación del lugar de la Mancha como problema
estadístico" and "The Kinematics of the Quixote and the Identity of
the 'Place in La Mancha'".
Translators of 'Don Quixote', such as John Ormsby, have commented that
the region of La Mancha is one of the most desertlike, unremarkable
regions of Spain, the least romantic and fanciful place that one would
imagine as the home of a courageous knight.
On the other hand, as Borges points out:
The story also takes place in El Toboso where Don Quixote goes to seek
Dulcinea's blessings.
Historical context
====================
'Don Quixote' is said to reflect the Spanish society in which
Cervantes lived and wrote. Spain's status as a world power was
declining, and the Spanish national treasury was bankrupt due to
expensive foreign wars. Spanish cultural dominance was also waning as
the Protestant Reformation had put the Spanish Roman Catholic Church
on the defensive, which had led to the establishment of the Spanish
Inquisition. Meanwhile, the 'hidalgo' class was losing relevance
because of changes in Spanish society which made the high ideals of
chivalry obsolete.
Influence on modern Spanish
=============================
In 2002 the Norwegian Nobel Institute conducted a study among writers
from 55 countries, the majority voted 'Don Quixote' "the greatest work
of fiction ever written".
The opening sentence of the book created a classic Spanish cliché with
the phrase ("whose name I do not wish to recall"): ("In a village of
La Mancha, whose name I do not wish to recall, there lived, not very
long ago, one of those gentlemen with a lance in the lance-rack, an
ancient shield, a skinny old horse, and a fast greyhound.")
Influence on the English language
===================================
'Don Quixote' alongside its many translations, has also provided a
number of idioms and expressions to the English language. Examples
with their own articles include the phrase "the pot calling the kettle
black" and the adjective "quixotic".
Tilting at windmills
======================
Tilting at windmills is an English idiom that means "attacking
imaginary enemies". The expression is derived from 'Don Quixote', and
the word "tilt" in this context refers to jousting. This phrase is
sometimes also expressed as "charging at windmills" or "fighting the
windmills".
The phrase is sometimes used to describe either confrontations where
adversaries are incorrectly perceived, or courses of action that are
based on misinterpreted or misapplied heroic, romantic, or idealistic
justifications. It may also connote an inopportune, unfounded, and
vain effort against adversaries real or imagined.
In science
============
Dulcibella, a deep-sea amphipod species, was named after the character
Dulcinea in the novel, following the tradition of naming amphipods
after literary figures.
Publication
======================================================================
In July 1604, Cervantes sold the rights of 'El ingenioso hidalgo don
Quixote de la Mancha' (known as 'Don Quixote, Part I') to the
publisher-bookseller Francisco de Robles for an unknown sum. License
to publish was granted in September, the printing was finished in
December, and the book came out on 16 January 1605.J. Ormsby,
[
http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/c/cervantes/c41d/preface1.html
"About Cervantes and Don Quixote"]
The novel was an immediate success. Most of the 400 copies of the
first edition were sent to the New World, with the publisher hoping to
get a better price in the Americas. Although most of them disappeared
in a shipwreck near La Havana, approximately 70 copies reached Lima,
from where they were sent to Cuzco, in the heart of the defunct Inca
Empire.
No sooner was it in the hands of the public than preparations were
made to issue derivative (pirated) editions. In 1614 a fake second
part was published by a mysterious author under the pen name
Avellaneda. This author was never satisfactorily identified. This
rushed Cervantes into writing and publishing a genuine second part in
1615, which was a year before his own death. 'Don Quixote' had been
growing in favour, and its author's name was now known beyond the
Pyrenees. By August 1605, there were two Madrid editions, two
published in Lisbon, and one in Valencia. Publisher Francisco de
Robles secured additional copyrights for Aragon and Portugal for a
second edition.
Sale of these publishing rights deprived Cervantes of further
financial profit on 'Part One'. In 1607, an edition was printed in
Brussels. Robles, the Madrid publisher, found it necessary to meet
demand with a third edition, a seventh publication in all, in 1608.
Popularity of the book in Italy was such that a Milan bookseller
issued an Italian edition in 1610. Yet another Brussels edition was
called for in 1611. Since then, numerous editions have been released
and in total, the novel is believed to have sold more than 500 million
copies worldwide. The work has been produced in numerous editions and
languages, the Cervantes Collection, at the State Library of New South
Wales includes over 1,100 editions. These were collected, by Ben
Haneman, over a period of thirty years.
In 1613, Cervantes published the 'Novelas ejemplares', dedicated to
the Maecenas of the day, the Conde de Lemos. Eight and a half years
after 'Part One' had appeared came the first hint of a forthcoming
'Segunda Parte' (Part Two). "You shall see shortly", Cervantes says,
"the further exploits of Don Quixote and humours of Sancho Panza."
'Don Quixote, Part Two', published by the same press as its
predecessor, appeared late in 1615, and quickly reprinted in Brussels
and Valencia (1616) and Lisbon (1617). Parts One and Two were
published as one edition in Barcelona in 1617. Historically,
Cervantes' work has been said to have "smiled Spain's chivalry away",
suggesting that Don Quixote as a chivalric satire contributed to the
demise of Spanish Chivalry.
English editions in translation
=================================
There are many translations of the book, and it has been adapted many
times in shortened versions. Many derivative editions were also
written at the time, as was the custom of envious or unscrupulous
writers. Seven years after the 'Parte Primera' appeared, 'Don Quixote'
had been translated into French, German, Italian, and English, with
the first French translation of 'Part II' appearing in 1618, and the
first English translation in 1620. One abridged adaptation, authored
by Agustín Sánchez, runs slightly over 150 pages, cutting away about
750 pages.
Thomas Shelton's English translation of the 'First Part' appeared in
1612 while Cervantes was still alive, although there is no evidence
that Shelton had met the author. Although Shelton's version is
cherished by some, according to John Ormsby and Samuel Putnam, it was
far from satisfactory as a carrying over of Cervantes' text. Shelton's
translation of the novel's 'Second Part' appeared in 1620.
Near the end of the 17th century, John Phillips, a nephew of poet John
Milton, published what Putnam considered the worst English
translation. The translation, as literary critics claim, was not based
on Cervantes' text but mostly on a French work by Filleau de
Saint-Martin and on notes which Thomas Shelton had written.
Around 1700, a version by Pierre Antoine Motteux appeared. Motteux's
translation enjoyed lasting popularity; it was reprinted as the Modern
Library Series edition of the novel until recent times. Nonetheless,
future translators would find much to fault in Motteux's version:
Samuel Putnam criticized "the prevailing slapstick quality of this
work, especially where Sancho Panza is involved, the obtrusion of the
obscene where it is found in the original, and the slurring of
difficulties through omissions or expanding upon the text". John
Ormsby considered Motteux's version "worse than worthless", and
denounced its "infusion of Cockney flippancy and facetiousness" into
the original.
The proverb "The proof of the pudding is in the eating" is widely
attributed to Cervantes. The Spanish word for pudding (), however,
does not appear in the original text but premieres in the Motteux
translation. In Smollett's translation of 1755 he notes that the
original text reads literally "you will see when the eggs are fried",
meaning "time will tell".
A translation by Captain John Stevens, which revised Thomas Shelton's
version, also appeared in 1700, but its publication was overshadowed
by the simultaneous release of Motteux's translation.
In 1742, the Charles Jervas translation appeared, posthumously.
Through a printer's error, it came to be known, and is still known, as
"the Jarvis translation". It was the most scholarly and accurate
English translation of the novel up to that time, but future
translator John Ormsby points out in his own introduction to the novel
that the Jarvis translation has been criticized as being too stiff.
Nevertheless, it became the most frequently reprinted translation of
the novel until about 1885. Another 18th-century translation into
English was that of Tobias Smollett, himself a novelist, first
published in 1755. Like the Jarvis translation, it continues to be
reprinted today.
A translation by Alexander James Duffield appeared in 1881 and another
by Henry Edward Watts in 1888. Most modern translators take as their
model the 1885 translation by John Ormsby.
An expurgated children's version, under the title 'The Story of Don
Quixote', was published in 1922 (available on Project Gutenberg). It
leaves out the risqué sections as well as chapters that young readers
might consider dull, and embellishes a great deal on Cervantes'
original text. The title page actually gives credit to the two editors
as if they were the authors, and omits any mention of Cervantes.
The most widely read English-language translations of the mid-20th
century are by Samuel Putnam (1949), J. M. Cohen (1950; Penguin
Classics), and Walter Starkie (1957). The last English translation of
the novel in the 20th century was by Burton Raffel, published in 1996.
The 21st century has already seen five new translations of the novel
into English. The first is by John D. Rutherford and the second by
Edith Grossman. Reviewing the novel in 'The New York Times', Carlos
Fuentes called Grossman's translation a "major literary achievement"
and another called it the "most transparent and least impeded among
more than a dozen English translations going back to the 17th
century."
In 2005, the year of the novel's 400th anniversary, Tom Lathrop
published a new English translation of the novel, based on a lifetime
of specialized study of the novel and its history. The fourth
translation of the 21st century was released in 2006 by former
university librarian James H. Montgomery, 26 years after he had begun
it, in an attempt to "recreate the sense of the original as closely as
possible, though not at the expense of Cervantes' literary style."
In 2011, another translation by Gerald J. Davis appeared, which is
self-published via Lulu.com. The latest and the sixth translation of
the 21st century is Diana de Armas Wilson's 2020 revision of Burton
Raffel's translation.
List of English translations
======================================================================
#Thomas Shelton (1612 & 1620)
#John Phillips (1687) - the nephew of John Milton
#Captain John Stevens (1700) (revision of Thomas Shelton)
#Ned Ward (1700), '(The) Life & Notable Adventures of Don Quixote
merrily translated into Hudibrastic Verse'
#Pierre Antoine Motteux (1700)
#John Ozell (1719) (revision of Pierre Antoine Motteux)
#Charles Jervas (1742)
#Dr. Tobias Smollett (1755) (revision of Charles Jervas)
#George Kelly (1769) (considered as another revision of Pierre Antoine
Motteux)
#Charles Henry Wilmot (1774)
#Mary Smirke with engravings by Robert Smirke (1818)
#Pierre Antoine Motteux, edited by John Gibson Lockhart (1822)
#Alexander James Duffield (1881)
#John Ormsby (1885).
[
https://archive.org/stream/TheIngeniousGentlemanDonQuixoteOfLaMancha/The%20Ingenious%20Gentleman%20Don%20Quixote%20of%20La%20Mancha#mode/2up
The original version], available free on the Internet Archive, is to
be preferred to the Wikisource and similar versions, which do not
include Ormsby's careful notes and with his Introduction much
abbreviated.
#Henry Edward Watts (1888)
#Robinson Smith (1910)
#Samuel Putnam (Modern Library, 1949)
#J. M. Cohen (Penguin, 1950)
#Walter Starkie (1964)
#Joseph Ramon Jones and Kenneth Douglas (1981) (revision of Ormsby).
() - Norton Critical Edition
#Burton Raffel (Norton, 1996)
#John David Rutherford (Penguin, 2000)
#Edith Grossman (2003)
#O. M. Brack Jr. (2003) (revision of the 1755 Tobias Smollett revision
of Charles Jervas)
#Thomas Albert Lathrop (2005, Second Edition: 2007)
#James H. Montgomery (2006)
#E.C. Riley (2008) (revision of Charles Jervas)
#Gerald J. Davis (2011)
#Diana de Armas Wilson (2020) (revision of Burton Raffel)
Reviewing 26 out of the current 28 English translations as a whole in
2008, Daniel Eisenberg stated that there is no one translation ideal
for every purpose but expressed a preference for those of Putnam and
the revision of Ormsby's translation by Douglas and Jones.
See also
======================================================================
* List of 'Don Quixote' characters
* List of works influenced by 'Don Quixote' - including a gallery of
paintings and illustrations
* António José da Silva - writer of 'Vida do Grande Dom Quixote de la
Mancha e do Gordo Sancho Pança' (1733)
* Coco - In the last chapter, the epitaph of Don Quijote identifies
him as "el coco".
* 'Man of La Mancha', a musical play based on the life of Cervantes,
author of 'Don Quixote'.
* 'Monsignor Quixote', a novel by Graham Greene
* 'Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote', a short story by Jorge Luis
Borges
Authors and works mentioned in ''Don Quixote''
================================================
* Feliciano de Silva - author of Don Quixote's favourite books, 'for
their lucidity of style and complicated conceits were as pearls in his
sight, particularly when in his reading he came upon courtships and
cartels, where he often found passages like "'the reason of the
unreason with which my reason is afflicted so weakens my reason that
with reason I murmur at your beauty;'" or again; "'the high heavens,
that of your divinity divinely fortify you with the stars, render you
deserving of the desert your greatness deserves.'"'
* Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda - author of a spurious sequel to 'Don
Quixote' which, in turn, is referenced in the actual sequel
* 'Amadís de Gaula' - one of the chivalric novels found in Don
Quixote's library.
* 'Belianís' - one of the chivalric novels found in Don Quixote's
library.
* 'Tirant lo Blanch' - one of the chivalric novels mentioned by Don
Quixote.
General
=========
* Great books
* List of best-selling books
* Lists of 100 best books
Further reading
======================================================================
* Bandera, Cesáreo (2011). 'The Humble Story of Don Quixote:
reflections on the birth of the modern novel'. Washington: The
Catholic University of America Press.
* Bloom, Harold (ed.) (2000). 'Cervantes' Don Quixote (Modern Critical
Interpretations)'. Chelsea House Publishers. .
* D' Haen, Theo (ed.) (2009). 'International Don Quixote'. Editions
Rodopi B.V. .
* Dobbs, Ronnie (ed.) (2015). 'Don Quixote and the History of the
Novel'. Cambridge University Press.
* Duran, Manuel and Rogg, Fay R. (2006). 'Fighting Windmills:
Encounters with Don Quixote'. Yale University Press. .
* González Echevarría, Roberto (ed.) (2005). 'Cervantes' Don Quixote:
A Casebook'. Oxford University Press US. .
* Graf, Eric C. (2007). 'Cervantes and Modernity: Four Essays on Don
Quijote'. Bucknell University Press. .
* Hoyle, Alan (2016). '"Don Quixote of La Mancha"(1605): Highlights
and Lowlights'. Rocks Lane Editions.
[
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1G8TjkbjWgCv7eYXFvzzbfgTd6ORRxhuf/view?ts=5e9db51f
See]
* Hoyle, Alan (2023).'‘Don Quixote of La Mancha’ Part II (1615): Low
Points and High Points.' Rocks Lane Editions. ISBN 9781914584367.
* Johnson, Carroll B (ed.) (2006). 'Don Quijote Across Four Centuries:
1605-2005'. Juan de la Cuesta Hispanic Monographs. .
* Ortega y Gasset, José (1957). 'Meditaciones del Quijote'
('Meditations on Quixote'). Madrid: Ediciones de la Universidad de
Puerto Rico.
* Pérez, Rolando (2016).
[
https://www.academia.edu/32654689/What_is_Don_Quijote_Don_Quixote_And...And...And_The_Disjunctive_Synthesis_of_Cervantes_and_Kathy_Acker
See on Academia.edu "What is Don Quijote/Don Quixote And... And... And
the Disjunctive Synthesis of Cervantes and Kathy Acker." 'Cervantes
ilimitado: cuatrocientos años del Quijote'. Ed. Nuria Morgado.
ALDEEU.]
* Pérez, Rolando (2021).
[
https://www.ehumanista.ucsb.edu/sites/default/files/sitefiles/ehumanista/volume47/ehum47.perez.pdf
"Cervantes's 'Republic': On Representation, Imitation, and Unreason".
'eHumanista' 47. 89-111.]
* Unamuno, Miguel de (1967). 'Our Lord Don Quixote: The Life of Don
Quixote and Sancho, with related essays.' New York: Princeton
University Press.
External links
======================================================================
*
*
*
*
[
http://www.bnc.cat/esl/Fons-i-col-leccions/Cerca-Fons-i-col-leccions/Col-leccio-Cervantina
Cervantine Collection of the Biblioteca de Catalunya]
* [
https://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/coll/cervantes.html Miguel de
Cervantes Collection] has rare first volumes in multiple languages of
'Don Quixote'. From the Rare Book and Special Collections Division at
the Library of Congress.
License
=========
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License URL:
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Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Quixote
