Don Quixote

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Don Quixote

Miguel de Cervantes

Literature

Jul 31, 2018

In the story of Don Quixote, a misguided hero besotted by popular romances of chivalry and steadied only by the hands of a capable and long-suffering companion, Sancho Panza, Cervantes managed to depict—in comedy high and low and in episodes alternately satiric, hilarious, and moving—the battle between idealism and realism that is the unresolved, and perhaps unresolvable, conflict of human existence. That Quixote is delusional is beyond argument; that his exploits entertain us is also beyond dispute—the laughter his quests prompt is one of literature’s great joys. Yet Cervantes never mocks his protagonist, but rather portrays his errant knight-errant with a sympathy that bestows upon him an unabashed dignity, steeped in the character’s stubborn desire to make meaning in a way that motivates mind, heart, and soul; that his passions remain heroic despite all the embarrassments of conduct and circumstance they generate is a tribute to Quixote’s yearnings, to the wiles and wisdom of Sancho Panza, and to the sensibility of their creator, who, beleaguered in life, is, in the end, triumphant on the page.

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Daniel Bennett

Nov 6, 2018

yes, I think this story should be read, and re-read..but the "story" is better than the book, meaning that the book can be a bit dry at times...but it's worth the read.

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