Don Quijote de la Mancha / Don Quixote of La Mancha
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Autor:
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Country:
Spain (ES)
Book Theme:
European writers “without borders”
Publisher:
Santillana
Publishing Year:
2014
He was born in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), where he began his literary career. He is considered the greatest figure of Spanish literature and one of the best writers of all time in the world. He was a poet, novelist and playwright, cultivating, in his own original way, the narrative of the second half of the 16th century. He enlisted in the Spanish army and took part in the battle of Lepanto (1571), where he lost the use of his left hand. He published his first novel “La Galatea” in 1585. His most important work “El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha” (1605) is considered by many critics to be the first modern novel and one of the best works of world literature. Between 1590-1612 he wrote the “Novelas ejemplares”, a series of 12 short novels. He died in Madrid at the age of 68.
National Award for Children’s and Young People’s
Abstract
Not only is it the most important work of Spanish literature, but it is also considered to be the greatest work in the history of world literature.
A novel of chivalric satire that takes us into the fantastic world of Don Quixote, a knight in his fifties living in a place in La Mancha at the beginning of the 17th century, who, from reading so many chivalric novels, ends up going mad and losing touch with reality. Believing himself to be a hero, he sets off on numerous adventures, with his armour and his horse Rocinante. Like all knights, he searches for his lady, who is in fact a young peasant girl with whom he was in love, whom he calls Dulcinea del Toboso and whom he considers to be a beautiful princess.
He convinces a peasant, Sancho Panza, to be his squire and to carry out heroic deeds with him.
In Don Quixote’s world nothing is what it seems to be, his differences with reality make him confuse an inn with a castle, windmills with giants, a flock of sheep with an army or plebeian women with princesses.
Not all the adventures will be fun, they will meet other characters and even suffer mockery and deception. Overcome by disappointment, he will return home very ill, where shortly before his death he will come to his senses and ask everyone to forgive him for his follies.
