Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

They’re good stories but if you are intimidated by how long it is, you could skip these novellas. If you’re still not convinced to read it because it’s long, I can tell you that the reason it’s so long is because there are chivalric novellas inserted into the narrative. She also did her best to explain the word play humor that sadly didn’t translate to English.

They pointed out plot holes that I didn’t even notice like someone in the room talking even though the author never mentioned them coming in. Edith’s footnotes in this novel were great. It’s not totally modern but not old enough that it’s hard to understand. The style feels similar to reading Jane Austen. It’s modern enough to understand yet she worked hard to keep as much of the context of the time period and language as possible. You need to read the Edith Grossman translation.

If you read this novel in high school and feel like you didn’t read the same book as me, YOU DIDN’T. The story is tragic, too, so it has some depth (but even the tragedy manages to be kind of funny). By the time I was tired of it, Don Quixote started to change and develop more. It actually takes a while to get tired of that cycle because it manages to be funny every time. For example, Don Quixote does something absolutely crazy until I can’t stand him but then he gets the crap beaten out of him so I felt sorry for him and kind of liked him again until, of course, he does something crazy again. Like laugh-out-loud funny with crude potty humor (my favorite) and violence that the Three Stooges would love. The book has had enormous influence on a host of writers, from Fielding and Sterne to Flaubert, Dickens, Melville, and Faulkner, who reread it once a year, 'just as some people read the Bible.'ĭon Quixote has the humor of Nacho Libre and a weird blend of fantasy and reality that I can only compare to Galaxy Quest. With its experimental form and literary playfulness, Don Quixote generally has been recognized as the first modern novel. Sane madman and wise fool, they roam the world together, and together they have haunted readers' imaginations for nearly four hundred years.

While Quixote's fancy often leads him astray – he tilts at windmills, imagining them to be giants – Sancho acquires cunning and a certain sagacity. In the company of his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, his exploits blossom in all sorts of wonderful ways. Don Quixote has become so entranced by reading chivalric romances, that he determines to become a knight-errant himself.

Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra