Selected Chapters from "Don Quixote" - Miguel de Cervantes (1605-1615)

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The chapter selections are at the bottom of this description.

We will be using the Edith Grossman translation; the paperback was published by Ecco in 2005. Reviewing the novel in The New York Times, Carlos Fuentes called Grossman's translation a "major literary achievement" and another NYT reviewer called it the "most transparent and least impeded among more than a dozen English translations going back to the 17th century."

Don Quixote, the great Spanish epic by Miguel de Cervantes, was originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615. It is considered a founding work of Western literature, often labelled as the first modern novel and one of the greatest works of fiction ever written. Don Quixote is also one of the most translated books in the world and one of the best-selling novels of all time. It stands in a unique position between medieval romance and the modern novel. The former consists of disconnected stories featuring the same characters and settings with little exploration of the inner life of even the main character. The latter are usually focused on the psychological evolution of their characters.

The book had a major influence on the Spanish language as well as on the Western literary community, as is seen by direct references in Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers (1844), and Edmond Rostand's play Cyrano de Bergerac (1897). It gave the English language the adjective "quixotic" as well as a number of idioms including "tilting at windmills" and "the pot calling the kettle black". Although burlesque on the surface, the novel, especially in its second half, has served as an important thematic source not only in literature but also in much of art and music, inspiring works by Pablo Picasso and Richard Strauss.

As near 1000 pages is daunting, and some of the episodes may seem repetitive, our Laura McGirr has consulted with a friend who teaches the book to her AP Spanish class and received a list of key chapters to read. Laura then augmented those with a few more to give some of the stories more continuity. Total number of pages to read is 203.

• Prologue pp 3-9
• Book of Don Quixote pp 11-18
• Part 1:
• Ch I - IX pp 20-70
• Ch LII pp 438-449
• Part 2:
• Ch I - IV pp 459-485
• Ch XV - XVI pp 548-558
• Ch XXII - XXIII pp 597-614
• Ch LXII - LXXIV pp 964-940