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A review by travelling_bookworm
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
“When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams — this may be madness. Too much sanity may be madness — and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be!”
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For those of you also intimidated by the size of this one, here is the long story short: Don Quixote is a sort of Mr. Bean of his time, living in his delulu world tied to his strict code of honor, and getting into all sorts of well-intentioned trouble. His “trusty” sidekick Sancho, spurred on by his hopes of getting either a full belly or the governance of a humble sized island by the end of the day, is always by Don Quixote’s side ready to make things worse.
The result is a truly entertaining chain of events with moments that really had me laughing out loud for the sheer absurdity of it all.
In the true fashion of medieval knight-errant fantasy books, all women encountered are the most beautiful ever seen, every object a possible giant, every misunderstanding a possible evil enchantment, all misfortunes lead to a happy ending one way or another. There are thy’s and thee’s flying around, much ado about honor stolen, and so on and so forth.
Full of satire, slapstick, and just plain good humor, this was a very entertaining book for sure. However (and this is a big however), it was also way too long. I feel like it would have really benefited from a firm-handed editor to cut down on some of the long-winded soliloquies and the repetitive nature of the story. I don’t want to be shunned by the lovers of this classic, but let’s be honest, this book could be half its length and still be very enjoyable (actually, more so).
I actually finally convinced myself to read this chonker of a classic because I have tickets to the Don Quixote ballet the following month, and I just wanted to know the story before I experienced it in another narrative form. After having read this, I am genuinely perplexed as to how this story was ever translated to dance. I shall wait and see, I suppose.
Also, I can’t end my review before mentioning this: did we just get one of the best female monologues of all time in Don Quixote? I hadn’t seen any mention of this before, but Marcela’s speech (which essentially boils down to: “my beauty is your problem, not mine, and it would really be no one's problem if you just left me the hell alone instead of trying to seduce me, I don’t care about any one of you, just let me live in peace”) was just too perfect.
“Heaven made me, as all of you say, so beautiful that you cannot resist my beauty and are compelled to love me, and because of the love you show me, you claim that I am obliged to love you in return. I know…that everything beautiful is lovable, but I cannot grasp why, simply because it is loved, the thing loved for its beauty is obliged to love the one who loves it….”
You tell ‘em, girl.
---------------------------------
For those of you also intimidated by the size of this one, here is the long story short: Don Quixote is a sort of Mr. Bean of his time, living in his delulu world tied to his strict code of honor, and getting into all sorts of well-intentioned trouble. His “trusty” sidekick Sancho, spurred on by his hopes of getting either a full belly or the governance of a humble sized island by the end of the day, is always by Don Quixote’s side ready to make things worse.
The result is a truly entertaining chain of events with moments that really had me laughing out loud for the sheer absurdity of it all.
In the true fashion of medieval knight-errant fantasy books, all women encountered are the most beautiful ever seen, every object a possible giant, every misunderstanding a possible evil enchantment, all misfortunes lead to a happy ending one way or another. There are thy’s and thee’s flying around, much ado about honor stolen, and so on and so forth.
Full of satire, slapstick, and just plain good humor, this was a very entertaining book for sure. However (and this is a big however), it was also way too long. I feel like it would have really benefited from a firm-handed editor to cut down on some of the long-winded soliloquies and the repetitive nature of the story. I don’t want to be shunned by the lovers of this classic, but let’s be honest, this book could be half its length and still be very enjoyable (actually, more so).
I actually finally convinced myself to read this chonker of a classic because I have tickets to the Don Quixote ballet the following month, and I just wanted to know the story before I experienced it in another narrative form. After having read this, I am genuinely perplexed as to how this story was ever translated to dance. I shall wait and see, I suppose.
Also, I can’t end my review before mentioning this: did we just get one of the best female monologues of all time in Don Quixote? I hadn’t seen any mention of this before, but Marcela’s speech (which essentially boils down to: “my beauty is your problem, not mine, and it would really be no one's problem if you just left me the hell alone instead of trying to seduce me, I don’t care about any one of you, just let me live in peace”) was just too perfect.
“Heaven made me, as all of you say, so beautiful that you cannot resist my beauty and are compelled to love me, and because of the love you show me, you claim that I am obliged to love you in return. I know…that everything beautiful is lovable, but I cannot grasp why, simply because it is loved, the thing loved for its beauty is obliged to love the one who loves it….”
You tell ‘em, girl.