Don Quixote de la Mancha: the universal work of Miguel de Cervantes It is a luxury to be able to write this article. At Hispania, a Spanish school, we are lovers of reading and we have decided that the time has come to talk about the most important Spanish literary work of all time:
It is a luxury to be able to write this article.
In Hispania, Spanish school, we are lovers of reading and we have decided that the time has come to talk about the most important Spanish literary work of all time: Don Quixote of La Mancha.
To fully understand the story of Don Quixote and everything that surrounds it, the article will be divided into the following points:
If you are curious to know all the details of this masterpiece of universal literature, stay with us because you will not find a more complete guide anywhere else.
Let the adventure begin 🙌🏻.
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Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra He is the author of Don Quixote de la Mancha.
The life of Miguel de Cervantes was quite peculiar.
He was born in 1547 in Alcalá de Henares, Madrid. His childhood was spent traveling through different provinces of Spain due to the work of his father, who was a surgeon.
In his youth, he moved to Madrid to work as a cardinal's servant, but abandoned his job to follow the dream of becoming a writer, which he had always had.
From a young age, Cervantes began to write plays and poetry.
In 1569 he was enlisted by the army and spent many years in military service. In 1571 he fought in the Battle of Lepanto.
Four years later, in 1575, Cervantes was captured by Algerian pirates and put in a Algiers prison. He was there for 5 years until his family was able to pay for his release.
As you can see, the life of the writer of Don Quixote was not easy at all. Furthermore, He completely lost the mobility of his hand left during these years.
Although the exact reason is not known, it is believed that it could have been due to a shot received in the hand during the Battle of Lepanto or in one of his escape attempts when he was imprisoned.
In 1580 Cervantes was released and finally he was able to dedicate himself body and soul to what he liked most, writing.
However, Cervantes had to have a job to be able to live while writing his books.
Cervantes became a tax collector, with the bad luck that in 1597 he was accused of embezzlement and ended up in prison... again!
in jail started to write Don Quixote of La Mancha.
The original title was The ingenious gentleman Don Quixote of la Mancha.
So, in what year was Don Quixote written?
In 1604, at 57 years old, finally finished his novel. This year he had already been released from prison.
The work was published in 1605 and was a brutal success. Almost immediately it became a masterpiece in Spanish literature.
Due to its success, Cervantes wrote again second part of the work that was published in 1615 titled The ingenious knight Don Quixote of la Mancha.
The complete work is considered thefirst modern novel of History and the most important of Spanish literature.
It is also one of the most influential in universal literature.
¿How many pages does Don Quixote have??
It is difficult to know exactly, since more than 500 editions have been made since the year of its publication and the number of pages has varied.
The complete work of Don Quixote, adding the two parts, has around 1000 pages.
Now that you know a little more about the life of Miguel de Cervantes, you are surely curious to know. What Don Quixote of La Mancha is about.
This great novel is divided into two books. Each book has a series of chapters.
¿How many chapters does Don Quixote de la Mancha have??
The first part has 52 and the second 74.
We are not going to summarize Don Quixote by chapter because it would be too long.
Instead, we are going to make you a summary of Don Quixote de la Mancha in three parts, which correspond to their three exits.
We warn you that in this summary we are going to enter fully into the plot of Don Quixote de la Mancha and there will be spoilers of the entire work and the end.
So, if you intend to read Cervantes' work, you'd better skip this part.
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«In a place in La Mancha, whose name I don't want to remember, not long ago there lived one of those gentlemen with a lance in a shipyard, an old buckler, a skinny nag and a racing greyhound. […]».
You wonder how Don Quixote begins, well, with these famous words.
In Don Quixote de la Mancha chapter 1 describes who Don Quixote is.
Don Quixote was actually called Alonso Quijano. Although this information is not indicated at the beginning of Don Quixote but at the end.
It is not specified exactly how old he was, but from the physical description given to him, it is understood that he was a man of advanced middle age, of between 50 and 60 years.
What did Don Quixote of La Mancha do?
It was a hidalgo who lived on income in a remote town in Castilla la Mancha. In the Middle Ages, noblemen were people who, by lineage, belonged to lower levels of the nobility.
However, in Cervantes' time, noblemen were often poor, as many of them did not have large properties or incomes and had to work to earn a living.
Don Quixote is presented as an impoverished and lonely gentleman who seeks escape from your mundane life.
As an escape from his bitter and boring life, Alonso spent the day reading chivalric novels and medieval princesses.
He was so obsessed with these stories that he lost his reason and confuse reality with fantasy.
One day, Alonso decided that he would become a knight errant thirsty for adventures. He armed himself with armor and adopted a skinny old horse as his faithful steed.
This horse was called Rocinante and accompanied Don Quixote throughout history.
From that day on he stopped being Alonso Quijano to become Don Quixote of La Mancha.
On his first outing, Don Quixote mistakes a peasant woman for a noble lady whom he calls Dulcinea del Toboso.
For him, every gentleman must be matched, and she is his chosen one. He then decides to go to a castle so that a noble lord can name him. officially knight.
The castle he goes to is not really a castle, but a small inn with the innkeeper and two young workers.
Don Quixote asks the innkeeper to name him a knight. The idea seems ridiculous to him, since at that time there were no longer knights nor were there any rituals like that.
However, he finds it so funny that he accepts the request.
Further along his path, Don Quixote sees a shepherd boy being beaten by his master. It is Don Quixote's first opportunity to prove his worth as a knight and he sets out to protect the victim.
After a heated conversation with his master, Don Quixote leaves thinking that he has solved the problem, but the truth is that everything remains the same and the master continues whipping the shepherd boy.
Later, our protagonist meets a merchant entourage. Don Quixote stops them and forces them to testify before the entire world that his lady, Dulcinea del Toboso, is the most beautiful woman that exists.
The merchants react by mocking Don Quixote and even insulting Dulcinea.
Full of fury, Don Quixote tries to attack them, but the move goes wrong and he is the one who receives a beating from the merchants.
A peasant, who happened to be passing by, finds him and takes him away. back home.
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Don Quixote is badly injured in his house and his friends the priest, the barber and the bachelor They blame everything on the books.
That is why they make the decision to burn most books of the library so that Don Quixote cannot access them.
When he recovers from his injuries, his friends tell him that a mysterious wizard has burned them, thinking that this will take away his desire to read more and live absurd and old-fashioned adventures.
However, the idea is totally counterproductive because Don Quixote invents at that moment his archenemy, the Wise Freston.
This causes him to set out again to live his second adventure.
In this second outing is when Don Quixote meets the co-star of the play, Sancho Panza, a good-natured, naive and paunchy peasant.
Don Quixote offers Sancho to be his squire and promises him riches and an island to rule if he accompanies him on his adventures as a knight-errant.
Sancho, although he suspects Don Quixote's sanity, accepts the offer and allows himself to be carried away by the knight-errant's vehemence until the end of the story.
One of the first adventures of both characters is the mythical confrontation with thewindmills.
In a small town in La Mancha, Don Quixote mistakes the windmills for being horrible and dangerous. giants of flesh and blood.
Don Quixote tries to attack them with his spear while Sancho tries to dissuade him from doing so, since they are just windmills.
Don Quixote sticks his spear against the blades of the windmills that lift him and is thrown into the air, leaving him injured on the ground again.
Another of the adventures they experience (misadventures, rather) is when they meet some merchants who carry merchandise for sale and he thinks that they are a caravan of captives that he must free.
The merchants they beat him up and they leave him lying in the field. Sancho Panza, squire, helps his master return home and intends to continue accompanying him on his adventures.
From here on, all the adventures of Don Quixote and Sancho they end very badly because of the protagonist's delusions.
One of the worst altercations is when they encounter a flock of sheep and Don Quixote mistakes them for the troops of an enemy army.
Don Quixote without thinking attacks them and the shepherds give him a brutal beating that leaves him without 7 teeth and very bruised.
For this reason, Sancho nicknames Don Quixote as «the knight of the sad figure».
But this is not the worst, in another situation Don Quixote frees two criminals thinking that they are poor slaves. The criminals thank him by stoning him and stealing Sancho's donkey.
After another series of incidents with other characters, Don Quixote decides to return home, saddened and battered by everything he has experienced.
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After a short time, Don Quixote and Sancho regain strength and make the third and final exit. in search of glory that they have not yet obtained.
However, history repeats itself and all the encounters with other characters go wrong or are tricks to take advantage of the gentleman's madness.
By chance of fate, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza end up in the court of some dukes who manipulate them into doing some creepy actions and laugh at them.
For example, they convince them that if they want to free Dulcinea from a spell, Sancho must hit Don Quixote 3,300 lashes.
Another test is that they must gallop blindfolded on a wooden horse, to which the dukes will have tied firecrackers.
After successfully completing these tests, Sancho is granted Barataria Island, just the promise that Don Quixote had offered him at the beginning of the adventure.
After a time as lieutenant on this island and making very sensible decisions, to the surprise of the dukes, Sancho decides to abandon his long-awaited dream to continue as a squire with his friend Don Quixote and protect him from evildoers.
On their journey through the Spanish geography, the protagonists leave Castilla la Mancha and arrive north, to a coastal town.
In this city, Don Quixote has a confrontation with the mirror knight, who is actually a masked Samsón Carrasco.
Samson Carrasco He is a villager neighbor of Don Quixote who all he wants is to convince him to return home and forget about his crazy adventures.
In the duel, Don Quixote is defeated and must comply with the request of the winning knight, who tells him that he must return home and not leave the village at least for a year.
Back home, Don Quixote begins to have a series of strong and delirious fevers.
Already at home, lying in bed and very sickIn the midst of this Don Quixote fever come to your senses again and he remembers who he was: Alonso Quijano.
Together with his friend Sancho and his niece, who are with him at that moment, Alonso condemns his own follies and thanks Sancho for having been his faithful friend and for having accompanied him throughout the entire time.
Finally, Don Quixote dies in peace.
As you can see, Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes is actually a very tragic story.
The main theme is like a person who lives in his fantasy world and far from reality Not only is he not accepted by society, but he is brutally attacked again and again.
However, Cervantes also deals with other more optimistic themes such as friendship and love. The bond created between Don Quixote and Sancho is very strong and they remain together until the protagonist's death.
Another very important theme of the work is the ode to freedom. Don Quixote decides to live adventures and change his life because he hated the life he had.
Although his adventures always end badly, Don Quixote follows his desires at all times and that fills him with vitality and enthusiasm.
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The treatment of the characters of Don Quixote de la Mancha It is one of the main reasons why Don Quixote is the first modern novel.
The novel not only focuses on the main protagonists, but enriches the story with many other characters that provide context and develop the main narrative arc.
This is a common thing we see in novels or television series nowadays, right?
No one is surprised that there are plots with many characters.
However, at the time Don Quixote was written, this practice was not common and Cervantes was the pioneer.
The plots of the play Don Quixote de la Mancha with so many characters were groundbreaking at that time.
Cervantes incorporated complex and realistic characters that moved away from the stereotypes of chivalric literature that were popular at the time.
Used humor and satire to criticize the characters of that time, and that was something totally groundbreaking.
Another of the great innovations was that Cervantes dared to deal in depth with universal themessuch as love, friendship, madness, identity, the desire to live adventures, the search for the meaning of life, what is true and what is not, the idealization of the past, among others.
Next, we are going to describe the characters of Don Quixote de la Mancha so that you better understand the story.
Don Quixote de la Mancha is the character protagonist of the novel.
At first he is introduced as "the hidalgo." When he becomes a knight he calls himself "Don Quixote of La Mancha." However, it is at the end of the story when his real name is revealed: Alonso Quijano.
The story begins when the protagonist is at home in a small village somewhere in La Mancha.
¿Where is Don Quixote de la Mancha from??
The truth is that Cervantes never revealed the name of the village where our beloved gentleman lived.
There are theories that claim that, from the description given, it could be Villanueva de los Infantes, although it cannot be confirmed with complete certainty.
Due to his obsession with chivalric novels, Don Quixote loses his mind and decides to go out in search of adventure, as if he were a knight from his beloved novels.
He is a man of about 50 years old who has lost his mind and lives in a fantasy world because it seems to him more fascinating than the real world.
At one point Don Quixote decides to leave the village with ancient weapons inherited from his grandparents, some old armor and his horse. Rocinante, who accompanies him throughout history.
The work describes Don Quixote with the following physical traits: pointed nose, tall, thin, pale skin, beard and mustache.
Who is Don Quixote of La Mancha?
The truth is that this mythical character is actually the alter ego of a normal person and current.
This person is Alonso Quijano. His life depresses him and the only thing that gives him satisfaction is escaping into his chivalric novels.
He becomes so obsessed with these old novels that he suffers a personality disorder and he becomes Don Quixote, thinking that he lives in the same time as in his novels of knights and princesses.
The name of Alonso Quijano It is revealed right at the end, when he finally regains his reason and good judgment and remembers exactly who he is and where he is, just before he dies.
Sancho Panza He is a key character in the novel Don Quixote. He is the squire and faithful companion of Don Quixote during his adventures.
Sancho is a country man, illiterate and innocent, but he is astute and has a natural ingenuity that allows him to solve the situations that arise.
Physically, Sancho is described as a short, chubby man, with black hair and beard and a wide nose. He dresses in humble clothing and has a wool hat on his head.
Throughout the story, Sancho serves as a counterpoint to the fantasies of Don Quixote.
He is the character pragmatic and realisticwhich tries to keep Don Quixote connected to reality, although Don Quixote does not accept that reality.
Despite their differences, Sancho and Don Quixote develop a close relationship throughout the novel.
Sancho becomes a loyal and protective friend from Don Quixote, and both characters learn a lot from each other throughout their adventures.
This great difference between both characters allows the story to have a emotional depth that goes beyond the purely comic or fantastic.
Rocinante is the name of Don Quixote's horse of the Mancha and he is another of the main characters of the work because he accompanies the protagonist in all his adventures. from the beginning to the end.
If you have ever seen photos of Don Quixote de la Mancha with his horse, you can see how Rocinante It is a clear symbol of Don Quixote's follies.
He sees him as a beautiful, strong horse worthy of a great knight, when in reality he is old, skinny and worn, just like his master.
Rocinante transports Don Quixote throughout Castilla la Mancha. In addition to being a means of transportation, it is also an example of tenacity, resilience and perseverance, despite the physical difficulties it has.
If you have ever wondered what the name of the Sancho Panza's donkey, here you have it: Rucio.
Although he is not a main character like Rocinante, this donkey also has important contributions to the story.
It's acomic character that provides a touch of humor. He is often the butt of Sancho Panza's jokes and is a stubborn and independent animal that defies his owner's attempts to control him.
In the second part of the novel, when Sancho is the governor of an island, Rucio becomes his "advice donkey", a title that Sancho gives him to accompany him in his meetings and help him make decisions.
Although he barely appears physically in the story, Dulcinea del Toboso It plays a crucial role in the plot of the play.
She is the platonic love of Don QuixoteAlthough she is just an ordinary peasant girl, Don Quixote idealizes her and imagines her as a lady of great beauty and virtue.
He goes to great lengths to protect his honor and reputation.
The character of Dulcinea del Toboso functions as a symbol of Don Quixote's obsession with chivalry and his desire to find something noble and pure in the world.
His platonic love for Dulcinea leads him to perform absurd feats and to face enemies imaginary in his name.
His role in the novel is fundamental for the development of Don Quixote and the plot.
Aldonza Lorenzo is Dulcinea's real name.
She is a farmer. Although Don Quixote obsessively idealizes her, in the novel she is actually presented as a simple peasant.
Some of her physical features are: a strong, sweaty, somewhat manly woman, with dark skin, with a big foot and a very rough hand.
Juan Palomeque is the owner of the sale where our knight-errant stays in the first part of the novel.
This character also serves to provide a comical touch.
He is the one Don Quixote asks to be knighted, a wish that is fulfilled because the innkeeper finds this situation amusing.
Don Quixote asks him this because he thinks he is the mayor of a fortress. In the novel he is described as a fat and quiet man.
This is another of the secondary characters.
Master Nicolás is the village barber where Don Quixote lives. On several occasions he tries to convince Don Quixote to return to the town and abandon his fantasies.
One of his most questioned acts is when he decides cage the protagonist to take him back to the village.
Pedro Pérez is the town priest. It has a very similar role to the barber, in fact, they usually appear together. The priest helps the barber to cage Don Quixote.
Another of its important actions is burn them chivalry books from the library so that Don Quixote does not read them again.
The wise man or magician Freston is a totally invented character by Don Quixote.
According to him, it is his archenemy and it was the evil one who burned the library books.
Don Quixote uses it as an excuse to go out in search and live new adventures in hissecond exit.
As you might expect, he is never confronted because he doesn't exist.
The housekeeper She is the woman who takes care of Don Quixote in his house. He assists him, serves him meals and heals his wounds after returning from his adventures.
She always wants the best for Don Quixote and tries to persuade him not to make any more outings as a knight-errant.
She always tries to convince Don Quixote that it would be a good idea to become a shepherd.
The Don Quixote's niece He lives with his uncle in the same house. She is a young woman under 20 years old.
She has the idea of burning the books to prevent her uncle from going outside and putting his life in danger again.
She also has the idea of lying to her uncle saying that it was a magician who burned the books.
Curiously, he also suggests burning the pastoral books because he believes that if his uncle becomes a pastor it would be even worse for his madness.
Before dying, Alonso Quijano gives him his possessions and gives him the name Antonia Quijana.
Samson Carrasco He is a very important secondary character.
He is described as a not very big character, sly, young, with a flat nose and a round face.
He also wants to convince Don Quixote not to go on any more crazy adventures outside the village. To do this, he comes up with a very curious strategy:
He dresses up as a knight (The Knight of the Mirrors) to duel with Don Quixote and defeat him.
At first it goes badly because Don Quixote defeats him, but in the second duel it is Samson who wins the fight and forces Don Quixote to abandon his profession as a knight and to return to his town.
Don Quixote sadly fulfills his victor's wishes and returns home, but shortly after he falls seriously ill and dies.
The racing greyhound is the Don Quixote's dog. He only appears when he is in the village. He doesn't take it with him on adventures.
He is described as fast and skinny. He is very hungry.
She is the Asturian girl who serves food for sale by Juan Palomeque. With a compassionate heart, he feels sorry for Quixote and Sancho.
The poor thing is described as having a somewhat strange and unattractive physique.
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Now you know a lot about the story of Don Quixote de la Mancha, the themes it deals with and the characters.
A wonderful thing is that the play takes place in real locations of Castilla la Mancha and from other parts of Spain.
Don't you think it would be fantastic to be able to visit the same places that Don Quixote visits in the novel?
Well, you're in luck, this can be done!
In fact, many people do it and it has a name: Don Quixote's Route.
In this section we are going to tell you in detail some of the most important places to see on this route.
We have prepared a week itinerary for you.
Enjoy the settings of the novel through Castilla la Mancha Don Quixote Route and feel like the protagonist of the work.
We have distributed the Route of Don Quixote de la Mancha in 7 days. It is the following:
Although this Madrid town does not appear in the novel, it is a good place to start the route because in this place Miguel de Cervantes was born.
Here you can visit some monuments related to Don Quixote and Cervantes.
The main ones are the pretty Cervantes Square or the Cervantes Birthplace Museum, a reconstruction of the farm where the writer was born and spent his childhood.
Yes, the capital of Spain also has a certain connection with the novel Don Quixote.
The main place in Madrid that is associated with Cervantes is the Church and Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians.
It is said that Cervantes and his wife are buried there. In fact, they have a memorial where a fragment is recited with these phrases from Don Quixote de la Mancha:
«Time is short, desires grow, hopes diminish and, with all this, I lead life based on the desire I have to live.».
There are more locations related to Don Quixote in Madrid:
– The Casa Alberto tavern: In that same building Cervantes wrote the second part of Don Quixote.
– The Cervantine society: It is located in the same place where the original work was first printed in 1605.
– The National Library: preserves a copy of the first edition of Don Quixote.
– The Plaza de España: In this famous square there are statues of the author and his main characters.
On day 3 we are going to Toledo, this province is located in the south of Madrid.
The city of Toledo is one of the most beautiful in all of Spain. declared as World Heritage which in the past brought together the "three cultures": Jewish, Catholic and Muslim.
In Toledo there are two obligatory stops in towns that are related to Don Quixote and its author.
The first is the town of Skids. Cervantes' wife was born here and they married in 1584 and lived for a time in the «House of Cervantes».
Today this house is a museum that can be visited.
The town of Consuegra, 60 km from Toledo, is surely the most famous and important location on the Don Quixote Route.
What are you going to find in that quiet town? Well, nothing more and nothing less than the famous mills that Don Quixote attacks with his spear.
To get to these mills you have to climb to the top of the mountain. The picture of the 12 best preserved windmills in Spain is simply beautiful.
In addition, from up there you can see impressive views of the La Mancha plain.
All the mills have names related to the novel. The most striking is "Sancho" because it still has the same machinery as in the 16th century.
The mill«Bolero» you can see inside.
30 minutes by car is the town of Alcázar of San Juan, in Ciudad Real. There are also beautiful windmills here.
Furthermore, it is said that in this town Cervantes himself was baptized in the Church of Santa María la Mayor.
There is also a space dedicated to the life of the ancient noblemen in the Casa del Hidalgo Museum.
On the fifth day the tour continues through Ciudad Real. Less than 10 km from Alcázar de San Juan is the town of Cryptana Field.
It is another of the essential locations to better understand Cervantes and Don Quixote.
In this cozy town of small, white houses you will find more windmills.
Which are the authentic ones? Those from Consuegra or those from Campo de Criptana?
Well, it is not known for sure, although it is speculated that these were the ones who really inspired the author.
And it makes sense because these mills are located at ground level, it is easier to find them than those in Consuegra.
The next town we head to is Toboso, again in Toledo.
If you remember, Don Quixote's idealized beloved was called Dulcinea del Toboso.
Legends say that in this town there lived a young woman who served as inspiration for Cervantes to create the character of Dulcinea. This girl was called Ana Martínez Zarco de Morales.
In the house where she lived there is now a museum that can be visited, theDulcinea House Museum.
There is also a monument of Don Quixote de la Mancha and Dulcinea in the town's Plaza Mayor and the Cervantino Museum, which has numerous editions of the work in up to 70 different languages.
On day 6 it is advisable to do two stops.
The first is in another town in Ciudad Real, Alba Argamasilla.
Here is the Medrano Cave, place where Cervantes was imprisoned and began writing Don Quixote.
Then we continue until Villanueva de los Infantes, also in Ciudad Real.
What should we see here?
Well, it turns out that this is the town where Don Quixote de la Mancha lived, or so the theories say, since Cervantes never actually specified it.
We arrive at the last day of this exciting trip.
We think it's a good idea for you to stop at Royal City because here is the Don Quixote Museum. In this museum you can see how reproductions of the characters from the work "converse" with each other.
In the afternoon we go to the last location of this route, the town of Almagro, which is just 30 minutes by car from Ciudad Real.
This town is considered one of the most beautiful in all of Spain.
The Plaza Mayor is charming. Here you can visit the Comedy Corral of the 17th century with a fun dramatized visit with actors.
We haven't talked about the food, but this shouldn't worry you. The gastronomy In all these towns it is sensational.
Some of the typical dishes from La Mancha are migas, garlic soups, atascaburras or morteruelos.
Finger licking good!
The work of Don Quixote de la Mancha is famous all over the world and is considered as the first modern novel of History.
What is this success due to? There are many reasons.
The first thing is its groundbreaking vision of the genre of chivalry. the novel satirized and ridiculed chivalric novels, which were popular in the Middle Ages.
This treatment of medieval novels spread throughout the world, exerting a significant influence on later European fiction.
Furthermore, Cervantes managed to the characters were more important than action, giving them more psychological depth and narrative weight.
It is the first polyphonic novel of literature, which means that Cervantes interpreted reality from various points of view.
Don Quixote is one of the most republished and translated works in the world and is considered a very important work within universal literature.
have been published more than 500 Spanish editions and more than 1500 in about 50 languages.
Many films, plays, musicals, animated series and literary adaptations have also been made for children.
Yes, Don Quixote de la Mancha for children is also possible.
Along with the Bible, the Koran and the writings of Lenin, Don Quixote de la Mancha is one of the books that has been translated into the most languages.
Within the ranking of best selling books of History, Don Quixote occupies number 3.
The first is the Bible and the second is quotes from Mao Tse-Tung.
As you can see, the impact of this work is immense throughout the planet.
Now let's see how it was understood Don Quixote of La Mancha around the world and some curious facts about Don Quixote de la Mancha in other countries.
The influence of Don Quixote de la Mancha extends to Latin America since its first publication.
The novel has been the subject of adaptations and references in the hispanoamerican literature, like the novel Little Quixote and his cousin by José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi.
The influence of Cervantes has also been observed in the works of authors such as Jorge Luis Borges, Alejo Carpentier, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, José Hernández and Ricardo Güiraldes.
in China Don Quixote has been the subject of several Chinese translations.
They were also made theaters about Don Quixote.
The first stage version premiered in the 1920s, and since then there have been several stage versions, including one that was a huge hit at the National Theater in Beijing in 2009.
The most widely read translation was made by Yang Jiang in 1979, and since then there have been several complete and direct translations of the original, as well as Chinese scholars who have studied Cervantism.
Don Quixote has also influenced Chinese writers such as Zhang Tianyi and Fei Ming.
Don Quixote has been super important for the european literature.
The first translation made into another language was in english. He made it Thomas Shelton in 1612.
The novel of Don Quixote greatly influenced the english literature from that time. Authors as important as Shakespeare, Swift, Walter Scott and Charles Dickens They recognized him.
Don Quixote's footprint can be seen in literary works such as Hudibras by Samuel Butler, Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe and Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen.
In Germany, the first translation of Don Quixote was made in 1648 by Pahsch Basteln von der Sohle.
The general vision of the romantic German Cervantes consists of perceiving in the knight a personification of the forces that fight within man.
Different German authors such as Schiller, Goethe, Kafka, and Thomas Mann have been influenced by the work.
Don Quixote did not have that much impact in France like in England or Germany.
It was translated into French for the first time in 1614.
There were several later translations and continuations written by French authors, some of which altered the ending of the original work.
UnamunoHe claimed that England and Russia had understood the work better than in any other foreign country.
Russian authors such as Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy They focused on the character Alonso Quijano from the last chapter as the real Don Quixote.
Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the book was very common in Russia and could be found in every village.
A curious detail is that the tsarina Catherine II He even commissioned a selection of the Sancho sayings and he composed a story to ridicule the quixotism of his enemy Gustav III of Sweden.
One of the most famous Russian translations was Vasily Zhukovsky, who carried out a psychological-philosophical interpretation of the work and was fundamental for the development of Russian prose in the 19th century.
Zhukovsky's version avoids episodes that minimize the hero and accentuates poetic elements.
Cervantes' presence is visible in Russian literature, such as in the works of Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoyevsky and Nabokov. It is really noticeable in Dostoyevsky.
The presence of references to the character of Cervantes in the contemporary Arab imagination is common, despite the fact that the first translations of Don Quixote into Arabic were published in the 1950s.
In 1947, the Lebanese Hispanists Nayib Abu Malham and Musa Abbud published «Cervantes, prince of Spanish letters», an essay that increased the interest of Arab intellectuals in Cervantes' work.
In 1956 the translation of the first part of Don Quixote was published in Cairo and in 1965 the complete work.
The figure of Don Quixote has been fully integrated into the arabic imaginary and it is seen as a symbol of the contemporary development of the Arab peoples, full of idealism but powerless in the face of the crushing force of reality.
Furthermore, Cervantes' work is an object of study due to its multiple references to islam and Moorish.
The founding father of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, was an early reader of Don Quixote and owned a Spanish edition of 1781, which is currently in the US Library of Congress.
Several American writers, including Mark Twain, William Faulkner and John Kennedy Toole, have expressed their admiration for Cervantes' work and have seen his influence in their own works.
Don Quixote remains popular in the United States and has been adapted in various forms, including the musical The Man of La Mancha.
What a great article!
Now you know many things about Don Quixote, its author and its impact on the world.
We hope that after reading us, you feel like reading this universal classic.
As we said at the beginning, in Hispania, Spanish school We love reading and in our classes we sometimes talk about literature and writers.
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Article written by Carlos Martinez for Hispania, Spanish school.
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