Into the Archive: Don Quixote

Well, I said I was putting Don Quixote on the Wish List, and today it is here. This is perhaps the fattest Penguin classic I have, 982 pages with a further 40 pages of notes. I had to have a copy. Whether you classify it as an anti-Romance novel or deep-state Romance novel, it is one of the pillars of literature, the so-called ‘First Novel’ of the Western canon.

It is not, of course, my first copy of Don Quixote. For many years I had this paperback

And briefly this hardback edition (originally in Mike’s library but now, I believe, belonging to John):

When I realized I no longer owned an edition I knew I had to get one, though I had never completely read either copy when I had them. Incidents within the tale are so well-known it seems almost superfluous: the Don’s capturing a barber’s basin to use as a helmet, his tilting at windmills (a phrase that has entered common parlance), Sancho Panza being tossed in a blanket, Quixote’s imaginary ‘lady fair’ Dulcinea, his bony nag of a horse Rocinante, his mistaking an inn for a castle and freeing criminals whom he believes are unjustly imprisoned and oppressed (they proceed to rob him and Sancho), and his final renunciation of his madness and his death.

Most of these incidents occur in the earlier and better-known parts of the book. The tale revels in the wordy digressions familiar in older books, such as Gargantua and Pantagruel or Le Morte D’Arthur, which delighted readers of the time but are not as suited to modern attention spans and ‘snappy’ narrative. Still, the story persists as a fable throughout the culture, referenced and retold time and again. Here are just a few such artifacts that I own.

From the stage play Man of La Mancha:

G. K. Chesterton’s The Return of Don Quixote:

They Might Be Giants ("They look like windmills, but they might be giants."):

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote:

This poster Mike had:

This leather bottle Kenny gave me:

This birthday card John made me:

A short story by Jorge Luis Borges:

Trials, Travels, and Travails

Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda ("The Travails of Persiles and Sigismunda") is a romance or Byzantine novel [Byzantine romance represents a revival of the ancient Greek romance of Roman times. Works in this category were written by Byzantine Greeks of the Eastern Roman Empire during the 12th century; later medieval romance works from around the fourteenth century continued this literary tradition] by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, his last work and one that stands in opposition to the more famous novel Don Quixote by its embrace of the fantastic rather than the commonplace.^[ While Cervantes is known primarily for Don Quixote, widely regarded as one of the foremost classic novels of all time, he himself believed the Persiles, as it is commonly called, to be his crowning achievement. He completed it only three days before his death, and it was posthumously published in 1617.

The generally accepted idea about the novel's orthodoxy as a Byzantine, neo-classical and Catholic epic romance has been challenged. - Wikipedia

The novel is a romantic adventure that follows the perilous journey of Persiles and Sigismunda, two noble lovers who disguise themselves as siblings to navigate a series of trials and tribulations across Europe. Their odyssey is filled with shipwrecks, [pirates], kidnappings, and encounters with various cultures and characters, all while maintaining their devotion to each other and their faith. The narrative explores themes of love, identity, and the triumph of virtue over adversity, culminating in a resolution that affirms the power of true love and divine providence. – The Greatest Books.

Miguel Carvantes is on record as stating how much he was enchanted by the old romances in his youth. After his experiences of war, imprisonment, and losing the use of his left arm and hand, he became disenchanted with how the chivalric ideals fared against the realities of life and wrote Don Quixote. This became a runaway triumph, so popular that there appeared many bootleg continuations that came out even during his lifetime. Its popularity and success were enough to secure his place and reputation as having written the best and first modern novel. How then explain the production of this return to romance at the end of his life, this “crowning achievement” as he himself held it? Was he selling out (this seems unlikely, given the source of his fame). IS it secretly ironic, or is it what appears to be? Could Cervantes have become … re-enchanted?

Of course, many modern romantics, everyone from Edmond Rostand to G. K. Chesterton to Terry Gilliam, have interpreted Don Quixote as being truly romantic under its realistic façade, of Quixote as heroic in his adherence to a noble code in a cold cruel world, however addled his brains. Of Quixote as an almost Christlike suffering figure, accompanied by his own down to earth Apostle Paul, Sanch Panza. By this interpretation, Cervantes was, perhaps, never disenchanted.

My attention was drawn to the Persiles by this video I saw yesterday. I think it amply repays a viewing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPH9K0x5fY4

Why They Can’t Subvert the Hero, by Pilgrims Pass.

And now I have another item added to the Wish List.