Read this when
Don Quixote
People laughed at him for tilting at windmills. He found his best friend doing it. 🌀
Who it's for
Readers start out laughing at Don Quixote and, over hundreds of pages, find themselves laughing with him and then defending him, which is itself a lesson in how we judge people who live by their own lights.
Feelings it meets
What it is
Miguel de Cervantes's novel, published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, follows a Spanish gentleman from La Mancha so absorbed in chivalric romances that he decides to become a knight-errant. He renames himself Don Quixote, names his old horse Rocinante, chooses the farm girl Aldonza Lorenzo as his lady 'Dulcinea del Toboso', and recruits the farm laborer Sancho Panza as his squire.
Where to find it
Public domain in the US in older translations (Ormsby, Jarvis, Motteux), free on Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks; Grossman's translation is in copyright, in print and in libraries (Libby/Hoopla).
Before you start
Heads up: Slapstick beatings and cruel pranks.
Age: Ages 12+
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken”
