Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (Book Review)

 

Don Quixote

By Miguel De Cervantes

Translated by Edith Grossman
Published by Ecco, 2005
Print Price:$19.99 

Watching the savage millenials and antifa rioting in the streets this summer, I was surprised to hear that one of the statues they had defaced in San Fran was one of Miguel De Cervantes. Something I had no knowledge of was that the author of Don Quixote had at one time been a slave. This got me interested in reading the novel. I think I might actually have read the first part of it way back in the 90s but did not like it enough to continue to the second part. I think it was the Oxford translation. But knowing how great Edith Grossman is at her job I decided I would give it a second shot. 

I think of Don Quixote as the first LARPer. He's a man who was so into tales of knightly chivalry that he decided to act out their plots and deeds. Well, he's not INTENTIONALLY role playing. He's quite mad. And he drags along a local farmer named Sancho Panza as his squire and companion. He travels around Spain seeing giants, sorcerers, enchanted maidens, and magnificent castles. Of course, in reality he is fighting windmills, common criminals, priests, and his maidens are slutty inn waitresses. Sancho Panza is at once his thin tie to reality and his enabler, as because he is just dumb, Sancho at times falls into his master's delusions. At others, he sees reality, and sometimes even uses Quixote's madness to help himself. Even though he is a fool, he only half believes what the Don tells him about being given the governorship of an island in return for his service. Essentially, the novel is a buddy road trip. 

The late great Harold Bloom mentioned Cervantes and Shakespeare in the same breath, as equals. I think Cervantes falls WAY short of that bar. Was Don Quixote a good book? Yes. Was it a MASTERPIECE? Hmm, not quite so sure. I've not had much luck with supposed classics that are large tomes. Les Miserables? Definitely check out the abridged version. Anna Karenina? A thousand pages about an AFFAIR? The only huge classic I've ever read that I have loved from beginning to end is Tom Jones by Henry Fielding. That one lived up to its billing.

I was not impressed or amazed by this book. I get the fact that it is culturally important as it is seen as the first "modern" novel. I recognize that it has had a vast influence on writers of all nationalities and languages. But me, I was meh. Even being in on the in-joke of the work, having read Le Morte D'Arthur by Malory not that long ago. I got exactly what Cervantes was going for in parodying tales of knightly daring do. But I still just could not get into it. 

To me, the most interesting part of Don Quixote is the second part which gets really meta. In Part 2, the characters in the book have READ the book I am reading! So they know all about his adventures with Sancho and of his madness. There's even an author who pirated Cervantes's book and characters and wrote his own sequel in the gap between Parts 1 and 2, which actually occurred in real life. But from what I could tell, this did not enrage Cervantes, but instead amused him. He pokes a lot of fun at the bootleg sequel in his OWN sequel. 

Quixote is like a celeb in Part 2. Dukes, noblewomen, even bandits all know his story, and want to be a part of it. They honor him and humor him by going along with his altered perceptions of reality. THAT was the most modern element of the novel, the meta aspects. 

At the time of its publication, Don Quixote was seen as a comedy/parody of a dying order of knighthood that probably never existed anyway besides in the pages of books. In more modern circles, some see it as a tragedy. It probably would not be printed today in the woke world we live in because they would say it ridicules the mentally ill. 

I see it more in the comedy/parody vein. To me, at least, 400 years ago, with Quixote being in his 50s, how much longer would his average lifespan be, a few years perhaps? At least in HIS mind, he saw some extraordinary things. He fought wizards, rescued maidens, met kings and queens, battled giants and lions! Sounds pretty exciting to me. His visions of the world in his mind made the it a much more interesting place than it actually was. It reminded me a lot of anime where the main characters get trapped in a virtual Dungeons and Dragons world and cannot escape. I mean, for all intents and purposes, Quixote was playing a videogame, or as I said, LARPing. What was wrong or pitiable about an old man living out his fantasies adventuring on the road? 

And what can I say about the translator Edith Grossman? If you read Spanish works in English, she is a a LEGEND. I would pick up a book with HER name on it, knowing nothing about the work. If she found an author worthy of translation, then there must be some merit in them. 

Is this an important book? With iconic characters? Yes. Is it as great as Shakespeare? No. Sorry Mr. Bloom. 

My Grade: B+