Title: Don Quixote
Author: Miguel de Cervantes
Genre: Fiction, Biographical, Adventures
Published: 1605 (Part I), 1615 (Part II)
Original Language: Spanish
BookMarks
Widely considered as the first modern novel, which also set the template for the classic literature.
This is the story of a man who has become infatuated with the idea of knight-errantry and chivalry after reading many books on the subject. So much so that he considers himself a knight, takes on a squire, falls in love with a lady of his imagination and goes on myriad adventures.
This is the tale of a mind which can simultaneously be considered a brilliant one and a totally crazed one. When he speaks about any other subject, he is rational, more than most but when he takes a whim of being a knight, everything becomes thoroughly disillusioned to an extent, where even the disillusionment is the logical thing in the world to him.
The rational side appears best in the advise given by Don Quixote to his squire Sancho Panza. Yet, over the course of the narrative, Sancho moves to the disillusioned side, while Don Quixote becomes more realistic.
Overall, it is a long, meandering story, which self-references mentioning the adventures in a book and even has another novel written within itself!
Another thing to be noted is that parts of the book have not aged well. What could be considered normal at the time of writing would now be outrightly racist! Just an example to show that cultural understanding evolves.
One line which stood out – “it is always more praiseworthy to do good than to do evil”. Simple yet profound.
Previously on BookMarks: Same As Ever
No comments:
Post a Comment