A little bit of Quixote in my life.....

Just finished with Don Quixote…a book I had wanted to read for a long time now….after reading it, there were a few things I realized….

First is that, I get the strong feeling that this book will be like wine, that over the years, it will become interesting with every reading…..the book seems to be multilayered, with different meanings to be found by different age groups and with more experience of life, the genius of Cervantes’s story telling will show itself more and more. For one, even if one is not aware of the timelessness of the book beforehand, I believe that the reader will realize from the first few pages itself that this book is close to ‘Gulliver’s Travels’, in that it shows a comical and absurd front for storytelling while masking behind it, bitter satire. But it does seem to me, after reading it, that Don Quixote is much more encompassing than Gulliver’s travels ever was…..so as I said, this is a book to be read again and again, preferably with an interval of few years, and I am sure that it would grow more enjoyable every time and we would always be left wondering at the depth of the book……


Second is that, I know now, why it has remained a favourite through more than 3 centuries, and not only has retained its appeal but actually became a subject of study over the years…..this is because it has something for everybody and because it gives the author’s own observation of life with all its ironies, hypocrisies, absurdities and comical moments not in a dry, philosophical manner but in a marvelously funny tale whose individual episodes are in themselves, whole stories in their own right……even while reading it, I realized that under the guise of comical adventures, Cervantes not only paints an absurd and extremely comical picture of Don Quixote (and I simply love the names he gave himself….”Don Quixote de la Mancha”, “The Knight of the Woeful Figure”- given by Sancho, “The Knight of the Lions” ) but interweaves, in the various adventures that the Don ‘falls’ in, a satire of not only the Don and the fantastical world that he believes in but the world around him and as the story moves on, the critique moves on to a wider canvas and in the end, it becomes a bit difficult to understand as to who really is mad, the Don or the people around him, the certified ‘madman’ or the certified ‘sane’…..its a certificate that seems to be found wanting in the end……




And it is an indisputable fact that this is a book that is enjoyable to the full, and the adventures of the Don make both for good bedtime stories as well as for a good study in philosophy of ‘reality’ and perhaps even human psychology. It is this range and depth that, I believe has helped retain this book’s freshness and appeal to various readers…..and it is this which has made possible the numerous interpretations of Don Quixote possible through the ages (as I read in the introduction, the Don was looked upon as a bumbling fool and an unblemished comic character during the time of Cervantes, as a romantic and even a tragic figure among the 19th century romantics and as a person in search for authenticity and meaning in the last century). The fact that there is criticism of the orthodoxies prevalent at his time (by which some people branded him a closet atheist) and compassion with the displaced people (Moors) also played no mean role in the work being dissected at all angles, including political angles.


Of course, I do not claim that I could read it in so much depth because it is possible to just go on the fun ride (which I mostly did in this, my first read) with the Knight-errant and his squire Sancho (perhaps one of the most comical duo in the history of literature who have made their way in various cartoons, animations and films) in their absurdly funny adventures. Even then, the satire and the multilayered stories become apparent as one moves on and becomes more and more immersed in the story and gets into the flesh of the character of the Knight and his Squire.

I found the way of the storytelling compelling as well…..the way that Cervantes becomes involved in the story (he makes a cameo appearance as well) and the way he becomes, in a way, a reader of the story as well because as he tells the reader (us) that he is just translating what another author (Cid Hamet Benegeli – a Moorish author) has written, makes for a more active reading than otherwise.


Thirdly, that this is a book about life as much as ‘Les Miserables’ is, both epic in their range and scope, the difference being in their style of telling their story, in their different way of putting to the reader what the author feels about the world. Whereas ‘Les Miserables’ is a dark tale of redemption, ‘Don Quixote’ is a tale which shows us that life is absurd and those who say otherwise are as deluded as the ones who are called ‘deluded’ by the former. It tells us that we should be careful about what or who we call insane but it tells that to us by the way of one of the funniest tales ever told. And it becomes funnier because it is so obviously intelligent and sophisticated. Though ‘Les Miserables’ is not black and white but perhaps grey in its characterization, ‘Don Quixote’ has the colour of a rainbow.





Cervantes’s genius has become even more apparent over the centuries. That he could tell a story that is timeless is itself a feat that only a select few could claim to rival. And I get the nagging feeling that we, of this century will not be able to understand ‘Don Quixote’ in all its meanings. I think that the duo, the tall, thin, lantern jawed Knight on his nag (which he believes to be a royal horse given the high sounding name of Rozinante) and his fat, short, verbose (he becomes a 17th century Navjot Sidhu in the latter part of the story) squire, Sancho Panca on his ass (which is always seen as an ass and named Dapple) will continue to ride their way in the imagination of centuries of readers to come.

Till my next read then:)