Don Quixote
by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
In Brief
A middle-aged country gent, overwhelmed by obsessively reading fantastical stories of daring knights in shining armour, sets out to reinvent himself in their larger-than-life image. Although widely ridiculed as a lunatic the newly-dubbed 'Don Quixote' ultimately spawns a legend of his own, drawing many of his friends, neighbours, and countrymen into an ever-widening spiral of madness.Why you should read it
Begun as a simple satire on a lowly brand of 16th-century popular fiction, Don Quixote ended up sprawling into a multi-layered mess of a narrative which both anticipated and inspired the relentless self-examination of modern prose authors. Over centuries of combative criticism it has been read variously as a straightforward comic pantomime, a herald of literary realism, and an anarchic ode to the romantic spirit, the only point of general agreement being that it is among the most important books ever written.
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casandra Very well done mid-twenties west london literary lad :)! Don Quixote...a good choice for our troubled epoch! Nice profile!
08 Sep at 07:28
