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The full original title was El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha; the adjective "quixotic", meaning "idealistic and impractical", derives from the protagonist's name, and the expression " tilting at windmills" comes from this story.
The novel Don Quixote actually consists of two parts: the first was published in 1605 and the second in 1615 (a year before the author's death). In 1614, between the first and second parts, a fake Don Quixote sequel was published by somebody using the pen-name Alonso Fernandez de Avellaneda . For this reason, Part II contains several references to an imposter, whom Quixote rails against, and Part II ends with the death of Don Quixote (so no imposter could experiment again with Cervantes' character).
Cervantes tells that the first chapters come from the "chronicles of La Mancha", and the rest was translated by a morisco from a found manuscript by the original Arabic author Cide Hamete Benengeli ("Mr. Hamid Eggplant"). This and other narrative resources parody the knight genre.
The plot covers the journeys and adventures of Don Quixote and his squire, Sancho Panza. Alonso Quijano or Quesada is an ordinary Spaniard (an hidalgo, the lowest rank of the Spanish nobility) who is obsessed with stories of knights errant ( libros de caballerķas ). His friends and family think him crazy when he decides to take the name of Don Quixote de la Mancha and become a knight errant himself (a quixote in Spanish was a piece of armor). Then he sorties to wander Spain on his thin horse RocinanteRocinante is the name of Don Quixote's horse, in the novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Rocin means "nag" (a low-grade horse). The suffix -ante means "great" or "best", and as the narration of the novel states at the beginning of the book,, righting wrongs and protecting the oppressed.
Don Quixote is visibly crazy to most people. He believes ordinary inns to be enchanted castles, and their peasant girls to be beautiful princesses. He mistakes windmills for oppressive giants sent by evil enchanters. He imagines a neighboring peasant to be DulcineaDulcinea is a fictional character who is referred to (but does not appear) in Cervantes' novel Don Quixote''. Also known as: Dulcinea del Toboso Aldonza Lorenzo Aldonza de Toboso. Don Quixote imagines the peasant Aldonza to be a princess and calls her Dul del Toboso, the beautiful maiden to whom he has pledged love and fidelity.
Sancho Panza, his simple squire, believes his master to be a bit crazy, in particular he knows that there is "really" no Dulcinea, but he plays along, hoping to get rich. He and Quixote agree for instance that because Dulcinea is not as pretty nor does she smell as good as she should, she "must have been enchanted", and from that point on the mission is to disenchant her.
Both master and squire undergo complex change and development throughout the story, and each character takes on attributes of the other as the novel goes on. At the end of the second book, Quixote decides that his actions have been madness and returns home to die. Sancho begs him not to give up, suggesting that they take on the roles of shepherds, who were commonly heroes of pastoralTitian's The Pastoral Concert Pastoral refers to the lifestyle of shepherds. In art, be it literature, painting, or another form, it refers to rural subjects such as villages, herdsmen, and milkmaids, that are romanticized and depicted in a highly unreali poems and stories.
Master and squire have numerous adventures, often causing more harm than good in spite of their noble intentions. They meet criminals sent to the galleyAbraham Willaerts, painted 17th century. A galley is a warship propelled primarily by oars, but also having masts and sails. Galleys fought in the wars of ancient Persia, Greece, Carthage and Rome until the 4th century. They were revived by the medieval Ms, and are victims of an elaborate prank by a pair of Dukes.
Many Americans may be more familiar with the musical Man of la Mancha than with the book itself. If they read the book, they would be in for some surprises: for example Dulcinea, or Aldonza Lorenzo, one of the main characters of the play, is never seen in the book.
In the novel, she is constantly invoked by Don Quixote as his lady, but never appears, allowing his hyperbolic statements of her beauty and virtue to go untested. However, the peasant girl he has mistaken for her, eventually, comes to his death-bed and acknowledges that she is, in fact, "his Dulcinea".
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