Rating: 
Summary: One of the great novels
Review: This is a mammoth of a book. Spanning about 750 pages of small text in my edition, Don Quixote tells a story of how the Don became crazy from reading too many knight-romances and imagined the world to really be like that. Together with his faithful squire Sancho Panca, they traveled through Spain getting into adventure after adventure and beating after thrashing.That's the basic story. But the book has long ago been heralded as a profound one. Indeed, the two main characters are one of the strongest western archetypes. Firstly, it satirises texts like epics and romances which were very popular in the Middla Ages. Secondly, it presents Quixote's misguided idealism juxtaposed with the pragamatism of the world at large. As a result, we grow to love him and empathise with him. There may be no damsels in distress to save from monsters in Quixote's Spain but we still think of him as a noble spirit. This, I think is one of the main points of the book. Thirdly, the book being so long and complete gives so many details about life in Spain that it's an interesting feature in itself. The translation I read (Motteux) is ok but at times quite hard to follow. Be warned that the text is not an easy read! But the way it's told is rich with stories within stories and everything has a both a point and satiric value. The only reason I don't give the book 5 stars is that it really IS too long. I know Cervantes had all this to say but it gets a little counterproductive to have the Don struggle through sooo much. Still, I don't recommend abridged versions as so many incidents contain a gem that will get you to either smile or shudder that it's worth struggling through the masterpiece. All must read this amazing book. Funny, tragic, great.
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