Thread: Don Quixote

I've never read it. Don Quixote, my Miguel de Cervantes, is widely considered as the greatest novel ever written and the Godfather of the modern novel; I'm wondering if anyone's read it (Spanish or a translated version) and their thoughts on it.

We watched the movie and learned a lot about it in Spanish class. I'd like to read it though.

It is indeed a brilliant work and particularly loved by men and boys of all ages. The mental picture of the old man tilting at windmills is priceless.

We are so fortunate to have had movies and even a broadway play "Man Of LaMancha" to visually see
Cervantes vision...but it must be read to get inside his head. As for being the greatest novel in the world...I have my own reservations about that.

It is a novel to be savored over and over again, each time gleaning something different about the human spirit.

It's not just an old man tilting at windmills. This, I would say is the popular icon when referring to the novel.
It's not about an aging man going crazy. It's about a whole tradition of Novels of Chivalry, along with some other popular stories of the time, like Arcadian novels, which is totally reinvented by Cervantès.

It is not a picaresque novel, either , but a parody of it. Who is this seemingly crazy man ? He is one who thinks he is living in one of this old-school novels like 'Orlando Furioso' or 'Amadis de Gaule'.

His Dulcinea is just an ugly peasant girl, but he makes a goddess and a lady out of her. He knows perfectly well there are no such things as giants, but only windmills, but he does not care.

He is the modern idea of the intrusion of reality into myths, that's why Cervantès is a genius.

I've been meaning to read the novel in Spanish. Unfortunately, I'm not skilled enough in the language to make an attempt.

I just finished Don Quixote earlier this summer, and I loved it. I agree with waylander that he knew that the windmills weren't really giants, but I'm not sure if we have the same reasons for thinking so. I think he did what he did because he intended for those around him to reconsider their way of life, and to see the noble spirit that had always been inside them, even in the "modern" world--and if that's the case, he would have had to have cared deeply. But maybe watching Man of La Mancha has influenced me there...