Don Quixote: From Man of La Mancha to Sites on La Web
Don Quixote is a staple of classic literature, and also the source of inspiration for the name of our site, findingDulcinea. If all of our talk of windmills and knights errant has made you wonder what all the fuss is about, then you're in the right place. In this Web Guide, you'll find plenty of Don Quixote references and resources, and even a few fun Quixote-inspired visual and audio works (although we promise not to sing "The Impossible Dream").
Expand All Guide SectionsDon Quixote Texts, Plot Summaries, and Audio Versions
Don Quixote's leading (and almost entirely imaginary) lady Dulcinea can be found all over this site-most obviously, as our namesake. References to the book Don Quijote de la Mancha (as it is titled in the original Spanish) are scattered throughout our writing and illustration, but maybe you're not sure what all the fuss is about. So get settled in a comfy chair and put on your reading glasses. If your comfy chair is in front of your computer, you're in luck; a few versions of the book can be found online for your reading (or listening) enjoyment.
Dulcinea's Insight
- Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, who wrote Don Quixote more than four centuries ago, is widely considered the "father of the modern novel." The first volume of Don Quixote was written in 1605; the second volume of the book was finished in 1615.
- In 2002, a survey of 100 famous authors conducted by the Norwegian Nobel Institute named Don Quixote the greatest book of all time. Recently, scores of Quixote fans around the world celebrated the 400th anniversary of the first publishing of Don Quixote. Among the celebrations was a "Month of La Mancha" at the University of California, Los Angeles.
- Because the book is over 400 years old, the original version, as well as many of the older English translations, are in the public domain (at least in the United States) and therefore legal to download or reprint.
- Looking for additional Quixote information? You might find more search results if you enter alternative spellings of Quixote. Try Quijote (the Spanish spelling) or Quichotte (the spelling used for the French opera).
- To buy a copy of Don Quixote in print, go to our findingDulcinea Amazon store. Edith Grossman wrote a translation in 2005 that was well received, and John Rutherford has an older and still highly respected translation.
- For more info to get you reading on and off line, try our findingDulcinea Books Web Guide.
Dulcinea's Picks
For an online version of the full text in English ...
Project Gutenberg
provides the full text of Don Quixote as translated by John Ormsby. Download this version, or read it online (Volume 1 starts on the first page, but if you want to skip to Volume 2, go to page 336). You can also read Don Quijote in the original Spanish.
Bartleby.com
offers Thomas Shelton's translation of Volume 1 of Don Quixote as a part of the Harvard Classics anthology. This text is easier to navigate than the Project Gutenberg text, but it does not include the second volume.
For online audio versions ...
LibriVox
has an audiobook of Volume 1 of Don Quixote available for free download. But clear your schedule first: it'll take you about 21 hours to listen to the whole thing. If you don't want it all at once, then subscribe by RSS feed to get a chapter each day. This version is read by different volunteers, so you won't have a chance to tire of any one voice.
Project Gutenberg
offers a computer-generated, audio version of Don Quixote. "Computer generated" in this case means that the recording sounds nothing like a human voice and struggles greatly with many of the words found in the book (the name Quixote included). If you want to give it a try, click on "main site" under "Download Links" to get streaming audio, and start with the second audio file; the first is just the title.
For a plot summary or additional story information ...
SparkNotes
provides quick overviews of what happens in each chapter, as well as a list with brief explanation of each character, contextual information about the story and about Cervantes, and even discussions of the different themes found in the story. SparkNotes also has a list of some of the more famous quotes from the novel and explains the meaning of each.
CliffsNotes
has summaries of each chapter of the book that are a bit more comprehensive than the quick overviews found in SparkNotes. CliffsNotes also has a few critical essays about the novel but is missing a few of the features found on SparkNotes, such as quote explanations and character analyses.
BookRags
has some study notes about Don Quixote, including a one-page plot summary, character descriptions, chapter summaries, and topic tracking (such as "Donkey Imagery" and "Metafiction").
The Modern Library
, an imprint of Random House, has a reading guide for Don Quixote with questions that might be useful for discussion in a classroom.
For information about translations ...
The Believer
offers this article, "Anglicizing El Ingenioso Hidalgo," that covers some of the various translations of Don Quixote (up until 2004) and discusses the difficulties and differences in the text that result from translation. It's a long but interesting read for those who want to explore why there are so many translations of this work, and what each translation adds to (or removes from) the original.
The News Journal of Wilmington, Delaware
published "Inspired by a knight errant" in October 2007. The article explores the upcoming transformation of Don Quixote into a children's book by Tom Lathrop, a man who has translated the book into English, and published a version of the book in Spanish with English footnotes.
Who knew?
The Milton S. Eisenhower Library
at the Johns Hopkins University hosts a virtual tour of artifacts related to the novel. Although not very impressive in terms of Web design, some of the history and early editions of the novel might pique the interest of a Don Quixote fan or curious admirer.
Don Quixote's Influence on Art and Artists
Because Don Quixote has had such a lasting, powerful, and cross-cultural influence over the past ... read more »
© 2009 Dulcinea Media, Inc.
