Don Quixote
Don Quixote (Don Quijote in modern Spanish; pronounced 'key-ho-tay' or 'quick-sote') is a tragi-comic novel by Miguel Cervantes, written in two parts in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. It is one of the most important Spanish literary works, and is often considered to be both the first modern novel, and one of the greatest novels of all time.
The novel is a satirical work, based in no small part on the glorification of knights and knightly virtues, orthodoxy, nationalism and national pride, aristocracy, and ultimately meaning in life. While the first half of the work reads as almost pure farce, the second half explores the more deep and psychological questions of meaning in life, place in the world, self-identity and self-fulfillment, societal roles, and in no small measure, madness itself.
Its protagonist is a minor aristocrat who has read rather rather too many books of chivalry and imagines himself a knight battling supernatural and mythological beings in a mundane environment where they simply do not exist. He is aided by a faithful squire named Sancho Panza, who has sincere respect for his master, and believes that he will be richly rewarded for his faithful service. However, all other characters in the book are able to see Don Quixote for what he is - a deluded and rather pathetic middle-aged man.
The humor derives from Don Quixote's ability to contort everything he sees to a demented world view based on silly books - however it is a measure of Cervantes' skill as an author that we come to sympathize with Don Quixote more than those who mock him, as much as the latter may be correct.
The episode most often remembered by readers of Don Quixote is the instance when he attacks several windmills, thinking that they are giants. The phrase 'tilting at windmills' has come to describe anyone who engages in a futile endeavour.
Don Quixote has provided inspiration for numerous artists and illustrators. For example, one of Pablo Picasso's most famous works is a black and white inking of Don Quixote. However, there has never been a successful cinema adaptation. The director Terry Gilliam chronicled his unsuccessful attempts to film Don Quixote in the documentary Lost in La Mancha (2002)[1]. Despite failure at a cinema production Don Quixote was successfully adapted into a musical called Man of La Mancha