Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes

"He so immersed himself in those romances that he spent whole days and nights over his books, and thus with little sleeping and much reading his brains dried up to such a degree that he lost the use of his reason"

I must preface this post by mentioning that I haven't actually read Don Quixote. Now before you all lambast me for writing about something that I haven't read let me remind you that English majors are professionals at that very thing. But really, despite the fact that I haven't read Don Quixote (I assure you, it is near the top of my 'when-I'm-done-with-my-masters' list) I am well aware of its literary impact and artistic significance. But first lets describe the books themselves.

I have two copies of Cervantes' master work. The first was a fantastic impulse buy from the wonderful Barnes and Noble imprint. This version is a huge, backpack-defying tome, worth it not only for its price but moreso because it includes those wonderful Gustave Dore engravings I've discussed before in this blog. This will likely be the book I'll read when I get around to it, despite the fact that if I read it in public I'll likely get the question readers of big books often get when reading such tomes: "Are you reading the Bible?" (Can anyone explain why 'large book' automatically means 'Bible' to so many people?).

The second version of Don Quixote would be somewhat more difficult to read as it is a complete Spanish edition. Despite the fact that I've retained my Spanish fairly well since high school I don't think this particular language ability is quite up to par with Cervantes'. What makes this book significant is that it was purchased for me by my sister Tamara who spent a semester abroad in Madrid. My family and I had the good fortune to take nearly three weeks to visit her last year. This brings me to my justification for blogging on a book I haven't read.

There is so much about reading books that is augmented by context. Stories, by nature, are meant to carry you to another time and place and allow your imagination to recreate something with which you may not be familiar; literature brings far-off lands to you in a way that no picture or movie can and while there is much to be said for such an experience having context begins to make that experience particularly literary. During our trip to Spain we spent a few days driving through the countryside of La Mancha and I made sure to keep my eye out for windmills. As it turned out, Cervantes' picaresque knight practically came to me. Not only did we happen upon a fantastic statue of Don Quixote himself, but one of our stops was a castle surrounded by period windmills. In fact, my bookmark for my future reading experience will be a Spanish national parks brochure that has a Don Quixote countryside tour map printed within its leaves...so yeah, I have context, which I expect will undoubtedly enhance my experience of one of the greatest tales of blind idealism in the face of a world that is slowly turning its back on the old codes of honor.

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Cervantes, Miguel de. Don Quixote. Trans. David Stuart Davies. [city?] Barnes and Noble. 2007
Cervantes, Miguel de. El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de La Mancha. [city?] Lunwerg. [date?]