Don Quichote

	The novel "Don Quijote" is created by Miguel de Cervantes. Don Quichot was born in 1597 as a special knight.

Cervantes wrote his book in the 17th century, just after the renaissance. In the 17th century the epic stories, including the courtly love and the honorary code of the knights were very popular in Spain.

Don Quichote's fascination with chivalry novels, which goes much further than the private idolization is very interesting. Donquijote identifies himself with the “caballeros”. Don Quichote loses reality and is mixing the real world and fiction more and more. He realizes this a bit too late, just before he dies.

Quote by http://www.online-literature.com:

"Often called the first modern novel, Don Quixote originally conceived as a comic satire against the chivalric romances. However, Cervantes did not destroy the chivalric ideal of the romances he rejected - he transfigured it. The work have been seen as a veiled attack on the Catholic Church or on the contemporary Spanish politics, or symbolizing the duality of the Spanish character.

Neither wholly tragedy nor wholly comedy Don Quixote gives a panoramic view of the 17th-century Spanish society. Central characters are the elderly, idealistic knight, who sets out on his old horse Rosinante to seek adventure, and the materialistic squire Sancho Panza, who accompanies his master from failure to another. Their relationship, although they argue most fiercely, is ultimately founded upon mutual respect. In the debates they gradually take on some of each other's attributes.

During his travels, Don Quixote's overexcited imagination blinds him to reality: he thinks windmills to be giants, flocks of sheep to be armies, and galley-slaves to be oppressed gentlemen. Sancho is named governor of the isle of Barataria, a mock title, and Don Quixote is bested in a duel with the Knight of the White Moon, in reality a student of his acquaintance in disguise. Don Quixote is passionately devoted to his own imaginative creation, the beautiful Dulcinea. "Oh Dulcinea de Tobosa, day of my night, glory of my suffering, true North and compass of every path I take, guiding star of my fate..." The hero returns to La Mancha, and only at his deathbed Don Quixote confesses the folly of his past adventures. "