Don Quixote Reading Group

[Etienne]

Are the later adventures caused by his earlier actions?

Well, indirectly. Read it you'll see

[NickAdams]

Well, indirectly. Read it you'll see

Fantasy becomes reality, which the narrative reflects, I wan't to keep reading but I changed my approach to literature. I doing a chronological reading. Starting with the ancient text: Beowolf, Gilgamesh, The Bible and so on.

[Etienne]

Fantasy becomes reality, which the narrative reflects, I wan't to keep reading but I changed my approach to literature. I doing a chronological reading. Starting with the ancient text: Beowolf, Gilgamesh, The Bible and so on.

If you want to read it nothing is stopping you beside yourself... so if you want to burden yourself with boring methods, that's your choice! :P You can always use the excuse that Don Quixote was the first novel ever written.

[NickAdams]

If you want to read it nothing is stopping you beside yourself... so if you want to burden yourself with boring methods, that's your choice! :P You can always use the excuse that Don Quixote was the first novel ever written.

That's true, but I made a rule not to deviate, but there isn't a lot that I want to read, before Quixote.

[Hira]

Hello Hira! Welcome to the read...no not all of us are finished with the book. I am trying to finish the last fifty pages while I am currently on vacation. Glad to see you are with us, take your time and just enjoy the novel. We are still posting here I just think a lot of us have gotten caught up in other reads and in the holiday stuff.

Later on toward the end of the book there is a story where Don Quixote asks a question to a jasper stone bust...he asks it that if what happened in the cave of montesinos really did happen. I know you have not read that far (or a lot of you for that matter) but I think this is important because when he asks this statue this question, it really is obvious that Don Quixote himself does not know for sure whether the cave of montesinos really happened. It seems like he needs this kind of confirmation from an "outside magical force."

Enjoy the read and post any questions or comments as you like...we will all be around. I will try to check this thread more often seeing as how I am almost done with it.

Hope everyone else is doing well on their read.

Hello Grace! Thank you for the welcome. So he saw it but needs confirmation if it was a hallucination or not? Meaning he is seeing still, as he saw, but is now actually questioning the truth of his visions? Hope I reach that far soon. To the cave of montesinos. Doesn't look like it though with the way I am going.

Hi all. Like Hira, I have just started a rather leisurely read of D.Q., and thought I'd check here to see if anyone else was still in the early-ish part of their reading. Perhaps Hira and I can chat at least, and I can go back and read earlier posts to see the others' thoughts while going through.

Yeah, I'd love to discuss. Going a bit slow at the moment though. Will quit perhaps for a day or two coz of the Eid over here, then go on, hopefully a bit faster.

Yes I think he did see visions at the beginning and later (it would be hard to believe he did not have visions at the beginning), however you do realize that at some point he stops taking taverns for castles. for example? Also his later adventures are not made around visions but are arranged by some people or happen for real.

I am just at the beginning at the moment. Haven't reached that point. Does he eventually stop? No, on a second thought, don't tell

[Virgil]

How can Sancho not see that Don Quixote is a madman when everyone else seems to realize it within minutes of encountering him. I know Sancho is not the brightest light on the tree but it really seems impossible that he hasn't figured it out. At times I think he knows, then I realize he doesn't really.

Oh I think Sancho himself says in a few places that Don Quixote is mad. I think it's just the nature of Don Quixote's maddness is one where he mostly copes with reality and that Sancho, despite his knowledge of Don's maddness has faith in him to succeed. And so he follows him.

I quess like the priest and the barber in Chap 26 I am "struck with fresh admiraion at the powerful influence of Don Quixote's madness" in its ability to overpower what little sense Sancho Panza has. Can anyone explain why Cervantes may have done this to poor Sancho? Are we meant to believe he is able to ignore DQ's madness when no one else can? I am often accused of over analysis. Should I just read it has it is, be entertained (as I am) and not care that Sancho is mildly crazy too?

I don't find Sancho crazy at all. Plus I see Sancho as not having a "little" sense, but perhaps too much sense.

Hey, I'm down to my last hundred pages!!

[Petrarch's Love]

I'm a bit hurried at moment, but when I have the time I would love to make a few posts going back to the earlier parts of the discussion about the introduction and some beginning episodes. My question: do those who are nearer the end mind some posts referring back, or would this disrupt your discussion and I should just make up another thread to post thoughts on the earlier portions of D.Q.?

[grace86]

I'm a bit hurried at moment, but when I have the time I would love to make a few posts going back to the earlier parts of the discussion about the introduction and some beginning episodes. My question: do those who are nearer the end mind some posts referring back, or would this disrupt your discussion and I should just make up another thread to post thoughts on the earlier portions of D.Q.?

Of course none of us mind going back to earlier chapters!!! I want all of us to get our fair share of questions, comments and answers in! And Petrarch please take your time reading, don't hurry so that you catch up to us because I don't want you to miss out on a really good read. Take your time.

I just finished on Saturday (I think it took me over three months to read this)...and I think I like the second half of the book a lot better than the first part. There are so many different types of adventures. But I will try not to discuss the ending too much so that those of you who are still in the beginning won't get any spoilers.

Can't talk too much at the moment, Christmas Eve...but when I get back home and to my laptop maybe we can get into some more detailed discussion.

I did notice that a lot of Quixote's adventures toward the end of the book were at the hands of the people he meets and not solely by his imagination. Cervantes plays a lot in the second half of the book with the fact that in real life someone falsely published a second part to Don Quixote...it seems like Cervantes uses this to make the characters in the book known of Quixote's adventures....and so the people he meets end up egging him on I think.

Hope Eid and Christmas is well for everyone. Happy holidays.

[Etienne]

Yes the second part of the book and the inclusion of the apocryphal book inside it is amazingly funny and witty. You know how in the first part he said he would be going to a tournament (was it Barcelona?) and in the apocryphal second part he goes to that tournament. Then in Cervantes' second part Quixote decides, just to prove the apocryphal book wrong, to go to a tournament in some other city instead... I loved that.

[Virgil]

I'm a bit hurried at moment, but when I have the time I would love to make a few posts going back to the earlier parts of the discussion about the introduction and some beginning episodes. My question: do those who are nearer the end mind some posts referring back, or would this disrupt your discussion and I should just make up another thread to post thoughts on the earlier portions of D.Q.?

Would love to hear your comments Petrarch. I'll definetely will go back and relook at parts you question.

[Virgil]

I finally finished yesterday!!! What a great work. I loved this. It's something I will definitely need to reread in a few years.

Well, my next excursion is a reading of The Aeneid. I will start a discussion thread. If you are interested in reading along, please join in.

[ArchCarrier]

Hello, this is my first post here. A couple of weeks ago I started a read-more-classic-literature program. I finished Gulliver's Travels mid-December, and spent a big part of my Christmas holiday reading Don Quixote, of which I have about 250 pages to go. After I have finished it, I will start on the Greek and Roman classics.
I decided I needed to find a community with which I could discuss the works that I am reading, and after checking out some message boards, I settled on the Literature Network.

So, without delaying the matter further, I want to touch on something I read upthread:

Have you noticed that the tone in the first chapters of Don Quixote is rather cruel? Don Quixote kills a man, a real man: he breaks his head in three pieces.

Don Quixote doesn't kill him (although it would be hard to live on with a head broken in four pieces ), because in the next paragraph Cervantes writes about the "friends of the wounded" (plural, since the original Spanish reads "Los compañeros de los heridos"). I haven't started counting from the beginning, but I believe the only person that dies in the book is SPOILER! Quixote himself.

[PanzaFan]

I have finished Quixote. I absolutely loved every part. I could not help but feel that the Duke and Duchess were a little cruel to Sancho but of course they also valued him. As I read part 2, I gained a better understanding of the relationship between Sancho and Quxiote. I felt that both men were more aware of the Don's madness in the second part, even Don Quixote himself.

the inclusion of the apocryphal book inside it [Part II] is amazingly funny and witty

I completely agree.

[Gracewings]

I have finally gotten back to reading Don Quixote. I'm at about P. 350 if there is anyone around who would still like to discuss the book.

[Virgil]

Well, it's still fresh in my mind, somewhat. What would you like to discuss Gracewings? Plus you can look through the thread and comment on what's already been said.