Definition of Don Quixote De La Mancha

Don Quijote of La Mancha is the name of one of the most famous and read novels in the history of the literature and it is also the name that the author of it, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, attributed to the central character of the story.

For those who do not know, it is worth clarifying that Don Quixote De la Mancha caused such a stir and influence in his time as a consequence of its totally demystifying content regarding the tradition chivalrous.

Because precisely its protagonist, Don Quixote de la Mancha, belongs to the nobility but does not have the privileges or the money that normally characterizes the nobles. Nor does he embody a brave and successful knight but rather the opposite, almost all the deeds starring "the hero" end quite badly or at least not as expected ...

Don Quixote is a fan of chivalric novels, he read dozens, and in that eagerness for them he went mad, believing himself a medieval knight.
Actually the real name of Don Quixote is Alonso Quijano

but he is baptized as Quixote in that chivalrous delirium.
As a good gentleman he has his faithful side, Sancho Panza, his horse Rocinante and the woman to whom he directs all his love, Doña Dulcinea del Toboso.

The book of Cervantes, then, deals precisely with the different adventures that Quijano leads, turned into the knight medieval Don Quixote and he does it from humor and the most absolute parody. This burlesque character with which Cervantes permeated the entire work was what generated this break with classical literature, and what caused the work to be conceived as the first expression of modern literature.

The novel Quixote dates from the beginning of XVII century, its first part The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha was published in 1605 and its continuation ten years later, in 1615, and was titled The Ingenious Knight Don Quixote de la Mancha,

The importance that this novel has had throughout its history, since its publication, was phenomenal. It ranks second after the Bible in terms of the books that achieved the most translations. Even in the teaching occupies a prominent place since it is a work of reading compulsory in the subject of literature in schools.

Themes in Don Quixote De La Mancha