Book review: “Don Quixote” by Miguel Cervantes
August 29th, 2004 at 9:20 pmWow, I’m so glad I finally finished reading this book.
Not because it’s bad, not at all. It is simply long,
very very LONG. 760 pages, to be exact. However, page
count is no more accurate measure of a books size than
LOC in program code size. It also depends on how much
fits into a page. I’d say that a word count is a good
measure for books (that’s probably why they use word
count for essays and school assignments, hmm…).
Anyway, since each page of Don Quixote contains a lot
of words, I’d compare it in size with “War and peace”,
or with “Lord of the rings” (the 3 parts combined).
And this is why I’m happy I finished. I read “War and
peace”, LOTR and other large books, but somehow I had
more time for reading then. When you have 2-3 hours
to read a day, a 1200 page book is not so bad. When
you barely have 40 minutes, it’s quite daunting. It
took me more than month to read Don Quixote (although
I was reading other books in parallel, but that’s the
rule rather than an exception) and I’m happy to finish
it, since other books await.
Enough statistics, though 
Don Quixote is a sweet
fable of a Spanish gentleman gone mad, from reading
too many chivalry books. You know, like children read
Spiderman comicses and imagine they’re Spidermen. It’s
easy to get over impressed by reading a book, especially
if you’re a kid, or your head is not 100% alright.
That was exactly the case with Don Quixote. Being
the typical “aristocrate” in classic literature, he had
plenty of free time on his hands, not having to work.
Additionally, he had no wife and children, so he surely
had to find something to make his time pass. And he did - he
voraciously consumed chivalry books - all of them quite
similar (think “fantasy books” - the same heroes, elves,
dwarves…), telling stories of valorous knights, fighting
against evil, conquering damsels’ hearts, etc. Don Quixote
read so many of these books, that eventually he convinced
himself he’s one of those knights, that there is a
beautiful lady that goes by the name of Dulcinea del Toboso
waiting for him, and that he has great deeds to do.
Now, you may notice some oldish scent from the last paragraph,
“goes by the name”, “damsel”, “deeds”, etc. I’ve read what
seems like an old translation of Don Quixote (from Spanish),
and it’s “old English” - thou, thy, thee, beseech, hearken,
damsel, deeds, etc. It’s actually very well written, so it’s
fun to read and is contagious
The poor Don Quixote becomes so obsessed with his madness that
he tries to fight wind-mills (probably the first association
everyone that hears of Don Quixote has), challenges lions,
takes a barber basin for a helmet and believes that evil enchanters
(magicians) pursue him, trying to disturb his novel causes.
Many people whom he meets on the way realize quickly that he’s
mad and “play around” with him, making themselves as if they
believe him, causing him to do mad things, to their amusement.
So, in fact, Don Quixote becomes even more convinced in his
being a knight…
The book is mostly easy to read, funny on many occasions,
and shows the author’s intentions well. The character of Don Quixote,
although being comic, does leave something to admire. His truthfulness,
honesty, courage, and generally good-heartedness are easy to sympathize
with. It’s hard to say whether Sancho Panca is a positive or a negative
character though. On one hand, he loves his master and stays very loyal
to him. On the other hand, sometimes it looks like he’s only interested
in his eventual merit (to which he’s, in part, pushed by his wife, who
seems to see in her husband only a means to gain wealth and status).
This book is called “the first real novel”, and is truly a classic,
written very long ago. The fact that it survived as a recommended
read for so long is enough to be convinced that there’s something
in it. Bestsellers are plenty, but you won’t get to read much
novels composed by medieval Spanish writers (in the 17th century),
translated to an
ancient English (in the 18th century), which are well written. On the other hand, be
warned, this is not a train/plain book. If you don’t have considerable
amounts of time to read, you may find yourself stretching this one
for too long a period, which is undesirable when reading a fiction
book (IMHO, of course).
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