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 ... read more »
Don Quixote's Influence on Art and Artists
Because Don Quixote has had such a lasting, powerful, and cross-cultural influence over the past four hundred years, it should come as no surprise that it has inspired and influenced many artists and their work. Take an online look at some art, literature, and performances that have drawn upon the novel, and meet some modern Don Quixotes.
Dulcinea's Insight
- A number of companies have used some part of the book's title or its character names. A hostel in Madrid, a fruit company, and, of course, Dulcinea Media are just a few businesses that have taken the name "Dulcinea." Even an album by the band Toad the Wet Sprocket bears the name Dulcinea.
- Inspired to go on an adventure of your own? You can travel the Don Quixote route in Spain. Before you head to Spain, check out our findingDulcinea Spain Travel Web Guide for tips about where to stay and how to get around (which you won't need if you bring your trusty steed).
- Theatrical adaptations of the novel abound, but for the most part, they stray wildly from the original plot. Before you assume the musical Man of La Mancha to be an accurate representation of the book, give yourself a refresher on the actual storyline of Don Quixote by visiting one of the sites in the first section of this guide.
- Don Quixote was influential even in its own time: one reader went so far as to create a second volume before Cervantes had finished his own second volume. In Cervantes's second volume of Don Quixote, the characters get wind of the false version and even comment on it.
- One writer compared Huck Finn to Don Quixote, and the relationship between Don Quixote and Sancho Panza has been compared to the ones between Calvin and Hobbes of comic-strip fame, as well as Buzz Lightyear and Woody from Pixar's Toy Story movies.
- Modern knights errant associated with Don Quixote include Norman Mailer and Frank Zappa.
Dulcinea's Picks
For examples of Don Quixote's influence on the findingDulcinea Web site ...
findingDulcinea itself was named after Don Quixote's imagined lady love. Our homepage features a tiny icon of Don Quixote on his horse, and our logo is reminiscent of a windmill (in reference to the windmills Don Quixote mistakes for giants).
Our Web Guides are written almost as if Dulcinea were dictating them herself, with "Dulcinea's Insight" providing tips and cautions about your search and "Dulcinea's Picks" showing you the best of the Web.
Our Netcetera's "The Daily Tilt" humor section is named in reference to the tilting windmills that Don Quixote mistook for giants while on his journey.
The Daily Dulcinea blog goes into more detail about the relationship between Don Quixote's search for Dulcinea and your search for information on the Web.
For the Broadway musical Man of La Mancha ...
Time Magazine has an article from 1965 that reviews the Broadway musical Man of La Mancha (which is inspired by the book). Although you can't see the musical on Broadway anymore, you can listen to the score with the original cast, or a 1996 recording starring Placido Domingo. You can even watch a film adaptation of the musical starring Sophia Loren and Peter O'Toole.
For film and video ...
The Internet Movie Database has info about the 1963 movie called Dulcinea (U.S. title: Girl from La Mancha) that was actually a remake of a 1947 movie of the same name.
The Internet Movie Database links to a trailer of a made-for-TV adaptation of Don Quixote starring John Lithgow as Don Quixote and Vanessa Williams as Dulcinea.
TV.com has lots of information and episode summaries of the cartoon "The Adventures of Don Coyote and Sancho Panda" from the early 1990s.
Lost in La Mancha documents director Terry Gilliam's unsuccessful attempt to make a movie adaptation of Don Quixote.
For additional music inspired by Don Quixote ...
Don Quijote is a language-learning site with a virtual Don Quixote museum that includes this selection of mp3s of songs inspired by and about Don Quixote.
GoldbergWeb.com offers the article "The Presence of Don Quixote in Music ... Beyond the Centenary Celebrations," which lists the occurrences of Don Quixote in music, and the influence of Don Quixote on music.
For written works inspired by Don Quixote ...
UCLA Newsroom has an article that demonstrates the influence of Don Quixote on many European and American writers over the last 400 years. Historical authors, including Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville, as well as contemporary writers such as Kurt Vonnegut, Philip Roth, John Irving, and Larry McMurtry, have all fallen under the book's spell.
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