An aging gentleman, his wits addled by chivalric romances, rides out as a knight-errant with the peasant Sancho Panza, tilting at windmills and misreading the world. The founding comic novel of the Western canon.
Books mentioned in Don Quixote (38)
La Galatea by Miguel de Cervantes: ““The ‘Galatea’ of Miguel de Cervantes,” said the barber.”
Diana by Jorge de Montemayor: “…him, he gave him for reply the same words and phrases that the captive Abindarraez gave to Rodrigo de Narvaez, just as he had read the story in the "Diana" of Jorge de Montemayor where it is written, applying it to his own case so aptly that the peasant went along cursing his fate that he had to…”
Amadis of Gaul by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo: “Many an argument did he have with the curate of his village (a learned man, and a graduate of Siguenza) as to which had been the better knight, Palmerin of England or Amadis of Gaul.”
Lazarillo de Tormes: “So good is it," replied Gines, "that a fig for 'Lazarillo de Tormes,' and all of that kind that have been written, or shall be written compared with it: all I will say about it is that it deals with facts, and facts so neat and diverting that no lies could match them."”
The Labours of Persiles and Sigismunda by Miguel de Cervantes: “offering Your Excellency the “Trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda,” a book I shall finish within four months, Deo volente”
Rinconete and Cortadillo by Miguel de Cervantes: “The curate thanked him, and opening them he saw at the beginning of the manuscript the words, "Novel of Rinconete and Cortadillo," by which he perceived that it was a novel, and as that of "The Ill-advised Curiosity" had been good he concluded this would be so too, as they were both probably by the…”
Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto: “His name," said the Distressed One, "is not the same as Bellerophon's horse that was called Pegasus, or Alexander the Great's, called Bucephalus, or Orlando Furioso's, the name of which was Brigliador, nor yet Bayard, the horse of Reinaldos of Montalvan, nor Frontino like Ruggiero's, nor Bootes or…”
La Araucana by Alonso de Ercilla: “the barber; “and here come three together, the ‘Araucana’ of Don Alonso de Ercilla, the ‘Austriada’ of Juan Rufo, Justice of Cordova, and the ‘Montserrate’ of Christobal de Virués, the Valencian poet.””
La Austriada by Juan Rufo: “the ‘Araucana’ of Don Alonso de Ercilla, the ‘Austriada’ of Juan Rufo, Justice of Cordova, and the ‘Montserrate’ of Christobal de Virués, the Valencian poet.””
El Monserrate by Cristóbal de Virués: “the ‘Araucana’ of Don Alonso de Ercilla, the ‘Austriada’ of Juan Rufo, Justice of Cordova, and the ‘Montserrate’ of Christobal de Virués, the Valencian poet.””
Cancionero by López Maldonado: “This," continued the barber, "is the 'Cancionero' of Lopez de Maldonado."”
Fortune of Love by Antonio de Lofraso: “This book," said the barber, opening another, "is the ten books of the 'Fortune of Love,' written by Antonio de Lofraso, a Sardinian poet."”
Don Olivante de Laura by Antonio de Torquemada: “This," said the barber, "is 'Don Olivante de Laura.”
The Garden of Flowers by Antonio de Torquemada: “The author of that book," said the curate, "was the same that wrote 'The Garden of Flowers,' and truly there is no deciding which of the two books is the more truthful, or, to put it better, the less lying; all I can say is, send this one into the yard for a swaggering fool."”
Felixmarte of Hircania: “…in it, famous and renowned for their deeds, were the mighty Amadis of Gaul with all his sons and descendants to the fifth generation, and the valiant Felixmarte of Hircania, and the never sufficiently praised Tirante el Blanco, and in our own days almost we have seen and heard and talked with the…”
Don Cirongilio of Thrace: “The first that he opened he found to be "Don Cirongilio of Thrace," and the second "Don Felixmarte of Hircania," and the other the "History of the Great Captain Gonzalo Hernandez de Cordova, with the Life of Diego Garcia de Paredes."”
The Knight of the Cross: “Another book was opened, and they saw it was entitled, "The Knight of the Cross."”
The Mirror of Chivalry: “Taking down another book, the barber said, "This is 'The Mirror of Chivalry.”
Palmerín de Oliva: “Opening another book he saw it was "Palmerin de Oliva," and beside it was another called "Palmerin of England," seeing which the licentiate said, "Let the Olive be made firewood of at once and burned until no ashes even are left; and let that Palm of England be kept and preserved as a thing that…”
Tablante de Ricamonte: “A thousand blessings on the author of "Tablante de Ricamonte" and that of the other book in which the deeds of the Conde Tomillas are recounted; with what minuteness they describe everything!”
The Carolea: “Called away by this noise and outcry, they proceeded no farther with the scrutiny of the remaining books, and so it is thought that "The Carolea," "The Lion of Spain," and "The Deeds of the Emperor," written by Don Luis de Avila, went to the fire unseen and unheard; for no doubt they were among…”
The Lion of Spain: “Called away by this noise and outcry, they proceeded no farther with the scrutiny of the remaining books, and so it is thought that "The Carolea," "The Lion of Spain," and "The Deeds of the Emperor," written by Don Luis de Avila, went to the fire unseen and unheard; for no doubt they were among…”
The Deeds of the Emperor by Luis de Ávila: “…and outcry, they proceeded no farther with the scrutiny of the remaining books, and so it is thought that "The Carolea," "The Lion of Spain," and "The Deeds of the Emperor," written by Don Luis de Avila, went to the fire unseen and unheard; for no doubt they were among those that remained, and…”
Nymphs and Shepherds of Henares: “On the other hand, it struck me that, inasmuch as among his books there had been found such modern ones as "The Enlightenment of Jealousy" and the "Nymphs and Shepherds of Henares," his story must likewise be modern, and that though it might not be written, it might exist in the memory of the…”
The Enlightenment of Jealousy: “He put it aside with extreme satisfaction, and the barber went on, "These that come next are 'The Shepherd of Iberia,' 'Nymphs of Henares,' and 'The Enlightenment of Jealousy.”
La Numancia by Miguel de Cervantes: ““The Ingratitude Revenged” was not nonsense, nor was there any in “The Numantia,””
The Ingratitude Revenged by Lope de Vega: “The Ingratitude Revenged" was not nonsense, nor was there any in "The Numantia," nor any to be found in "The Merchant Lover," nor yet in "The Friendly Fair Foe," nor in some others that have been written by certain gifted poets, to their own fame and renown, and to the profit of those that brought…”
The Merchant Lover: “The Ingratitude Revenged" was not nonsense, nor was there any in "The Numantia," nor any to be found in "The Merchant Lover," nor yet in "The Friendly Fair Foe," nor in some others that have been written by certain gifted poets, to their own fame and renown, and to the profit of those that brought…”
The Friendly Fair Foe: “The Ingratitude Revenged" was not nonsense, nor was there any in "The Numantia," nor any to be found in "The Merchant Lover," nor yet in "The Friendly Fair Foe," nor in some others that have been written by certain gifted poets, to their own fame and renown, and to the profit of those that brought…”
Phyllis by Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola: “No doubt,' replied the actor in question, 'you mean the "Isabella," the "Phyllis," and the "Alexandra."”
Isabella by Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola: “No doubt,' replied the actor in question, 'you mean the "Isabella," the "Phyllis," and the "Alexandra."”
Alexandra by Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola: “No doubt,' replied the actor in question, 'you mean the "Isabella," the "Phyllis," and the "Alexandra."”
Tears of Saint Peter by Luigi Tansillo: “And in confirmation of the truth of what I say, let me repeat to thee a stanza made by the famous poet Luigi Tansillo at the end of the first part of his 'Tears of Saint Peter,' which says thus:”
Light of the Soul: “…send your worship good luck," said Don Quixote; and he moved on to another case, where he saw them correcting a sheet of a book with the title of "Light of the Soul;" noticing it he observed, "Books like this, though there are many of the kind, are the ones that deserve to be printed, for many…”
Il Pastor Fido by Battista Guarini: “Doctor Cristóbal de Figueroa, in his _Pastor Fido_, and Don Juan de Jáuregui, in his _Aminta_, wherein by their felicity they leave it in doubt which is the translation and which the original.”
Aminta by Torquato Tasso: “This estimate does not include two famous translators, Doctor Cristobal de Figueroa, in his Pastor Fido, and Don Juan de Jauregui, in his Aminta, wherein by their felicity they leave it in doubt which is the translation and which the original.”
The Cortes of Death: “To which the devil, stopping the cart, answered quietly, "Senor, we are players of Angulo el Malo's company; we have been acting the play of 'The Cortes of Death' this morning, which is the octave of Corpus Christi, in a village behind that hill, and we have to act it this afternoon in that village…”
Books that mention Don Quixote (82)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain: “He said if I warn't so ignorant, but had read a book called Don Quixote, I would know without asking.”
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens: “From that blessed little room, Roderick Random, Peregrine Pickle, Humphrey Clinker, Tom Jones, the Vicar of Wakefield, Don Quixote, Gil Blas, and Robinson Crusoe, came out, a glorious host, to keep me company.”
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas: “He borrowed this from "Don Quixote," the only book he had ever read, but which he still slightly remembered.”
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: “Imagine to yourself a Don Quixote of eighteen; a Don Quixote without his corselet, without his coat of mail, without his cuisses; a Don Quixote clothed in a woolen doublet, the blue color of which had faded into a nameless shade between lees of wine and a heavenly azure; face long and brown; high…”
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell: “One cannot help admiring him, with a mixture of pity in one's admiration, something like what one feels for Don Quixote.”
Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: “…my purpose is to do exact justice to every creature brought upon the stage of this dramatic work,--I could not stifle this distinction in favour of Don Quixote's horse;--in all other points, the parson's horse, I say, was just such another, for he was as lean, and as lank, and as sorry a jade,…”
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis: “Westlake quoted the "Paradiso," "Don Quixote," "Wilhelm Meister," and the Koran, she reflected that no one she knew, not even her father, had read all four.”
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky: “"A month ago you were turning over the pages of your Don Quixote, and suddenly called out 'there is nothing better than the poor knight.'”
Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas: “Mousqueton also attracted attention; and as the romance of Don Quixote was then the fashion, they said that he was Sancho, who, after having lost one master, had found two.”
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo: “We do not think of Don Quixote but of Leonidas.”
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell: “I was helping to decide whether any of the new assortment of coloured silks which they had just received at the shop would do to match a grey and black mousseline-delaine that wanted a new breadth, when a tall, thin, Don Quixote-looking old man came into the shop for some woollen gloves.”
Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: “…embalming in immortal verse all that it contained of noble and Christian elements, Cervantes sat, perhaps, in his dungeon, writing with his left hand Don Quixote, saddest of books, in spite of all its wit; the story of a pure and noble soul, who mistakes this actual life for that ideal one which…”
Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw: “He did it like an operatic tenor--a regular handsome fellow, with flashing eyes and lovely moustache, shouting a war-cry and charging like Don Quixote at the windmills.”
Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw: “When his swagger is exhausted he drivels into erotic poetry or sentimental uxoriousness; and the Tennysonian King Arthur posing as Guinevere becomes Don Quixote grovelling before Dulcinea.”
Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand: “DE GUICHE (who has controlled himself--smiling): Have you read 'Don Quixote'?”
Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert: “And the _Don Quixote_ of which we coloured the engravings together?" "I have it still!"”
The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal: “In all ages, the base Sancho Panza triumphs, you will find, in the long run, over the sublime Don Quixote.”
Lost Illusions by Honoré de Balzac: “…Camille, the Delia of Tibullus, Ariosto's Angelica, Dante's Francesca, Moliere's Alceste, Beaumarchais' Figaro, Scott's Rebecca the Jewess, the Don Quixote of Cervantes,--do we not owe these deathless creations to immortal throes?"”
The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine: “…of Queen Anne's farthings, and collectors of relics and antiquities; or to render the belief of miracles ridiculous, by outdoing miracle, as Don Quixote outdid chivalry; or to embarrass the belief of miracles, by making it doubtful by what power, whether of God or of the devil, any thing…”
A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne: “all which, as Sancho Panza said to Don Quixote, they might have seen dry-shod at home.”
The Lifted Veil by George Eliot: “I read Plutarch, and Shakespeare, and Don Quixote by the sly, and supplied myself in that way with wandering thoughts, while my tutor was assuring me that "an improved man, as distinguished from an ignorant one, was a man who knew the reason why water ran downhill."”
The Spoils of Poynton by Henry James: “Her handsome, high-nosed, excited face might have been that of Don Quixote tilting at a windmill.”
The Alchemist by Ben Jonson: “It is my humour: you are a pimp and a trig, And an Amadis de Gaul, or a Don Quixote.”
The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington: “he’s a knight, George—a crazy one, perhaps, if you’ve read ‘Don Quixote.’”
Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain: “shown in the effects wrought by 'Don Quixote' and those wrought by 'Ivanhoe.'”
Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding: “is not such a book as that which records the achievements of the renowned Don Quixote more worthy the name of a history than even Mariana's”
The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollett: “Here he was interrupted by my uncle; who asked peevishly if he was Don Quixote enough, at this time of day, to throw down his gauntlet as champion for a man who had treated him with such ungrateful neglect.”
The Adventures of Roderick Random by Tobias Smollett: “A third sort swore, that no other cause could be assigned for this undertaking than that which induced Don Quixote to attack the windmill.”
The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad: “a long, meagre face with the accentuated features of an energetic Don Quixote”
One of Ours by Willa Cather: “I'm no sissy, but that fellow's a regular Don Quixote.”
The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas: “They who have pronounced Don Quixote mad because he rode out to the conquest of an empire with nobody but Sancho his squire”
The Forty-Five Guardsmen by Alexandre Dumas: “a gray-headed lackey, who looked like the precursor of Sancho Panza, as his master did of Don Quixote.”
Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini: “You've read 'Don Quixote,' and what happened to him when he went tilting against windmills.”
Fraternity by John Galsworthy: “Don Quixote, in four volumes, covered with brown paper”
Under Fire by Henri Barbusse: “He has bent his long Don Quixote carcase down in the shadow, and outstretched the lean neck”
The Elm-Tree on the Mall by Anatole France: “a greater work than 'Gargantua' or 'Don Quixote' or 'Sartor Resartus'”
The Wicker-Work Woman by Anatole France: “the place in _Don Quixote_ where Sancho complains of being obliged to endure a never-ending series of misfortunes”
The Dark Flower by John Galsworthy: “from his favourite passage out of his favourite book, 'Don Quixote.'”
2666 by Roberto Bolaño: “And may I remind you that Cervantes wrote Don Quixote more or less at the same age I am now.”
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges: “Esa obra... consta de los capítulos noveno y trigésimo octavo de la primera parte del Don Quijote y de un fragmento del capítulo veintidós.”
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño: “a face with a few wrinkles already ... the female version of Don Quixote, as Pedro Garfias once said to me.”
The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell: “Don Quixote was the last hero of the Middle Ages.”
Why Read the Classics by Italo Calvino: Discussed at length in Tirant essay; recurs in Diderot & Charterhouse essays
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov: “a sweet awe creeps into one's heart at the thought that in this house there is now ripening the future author of a Don Quixote or a Faust, or, devil take me, a Dead Souls!”
Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco: “the first English translation of Don Quixote bears corrections in Bacon's hand.”
Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow: “But if these have been neglected … let me advise him to make the first onset upon his fair del Tobosa [Dulcinea del Toboso, the country girl in Don Quixote] with vigor that the impression may be deep, if it cannot be lasting or frequently renewed.”27 The marriage thrived even though Martha and George lacked children.”
An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine: “Opening line of the novel: "Don Quixote's misfortune is not his imagination, but Sancho Panza."”
The Green Mummy by Fergus Hume: “not unlike Dore's conception of Don Quixote”
Père Goriot by Honoré de Balzac: “I am like Don Quixote, I have a fancy for defending the weak against the strong.”
The Wild Ass's Skin by Honoré de Balzac: “very much like Sancho Panza giving to Don Quixote the history of the goats”
White-Jacket by Herman Melville: “Before seeking an introduction to him through Lemsford, I had often marked his tall, spare, upright figure stalking like Don Quixote among the pigmies of the Afterguard, to which he belonged.”
The Confidence-Man by Herman Melville: “But they can hardly be original in the sense that Hamlet is, or Don Quixote, or Milton's Satan.”
The Story of a Bad Boy by Thomas Bailey Aldrich: “In a lidless trunk in the garret I subsequently unearthed another motley collection of novels and romances, embracing the adventures of Baron Trenck, Jack Sheppard, Don Quixote, Gil Blas, and Charlotte Temple--all of which I fed upon like a bookworm.”
How to Read and Why by Harold Bloom: “The reader, who learns to love Don Quixote, and Sancho Panza, will get to know better who she is, because of them.”
Quichotte by Salman Rushdie: “The Magic Mountain, Madame Bovary, Don Quixote.”
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante: “Too many bad gallant novels, Lenù, make a Don Quixote; but here in Naples we, with all due respect to Don Quixote, have no need to tilt against windmills.”
Stoner by John Williams: “You, too, are among the infirm—you are the dreamer, the madman in a madder world, our own midwestern Don Quixote without his Sancho, gamboling under the blue sky.”
Monsignor Quixote by Graham Greene: “"'Let us go up to Jerusalem and die with Him.' Don Quixote could not have put it better than St Thomas." — Father Quixote repeatedly reads and quotes his ancestor's book throughout the novel.”
Italo Calvino by Martin McLaughlin: “or the play within the play of Hamlet, or Don Quixote reading Don Quixote, is that if fictional characters can become readers or spectators...”
On Literature by Umberto Eco: “discussed as an example of e-book reading and Pierre Menard's rewriting”
Reamde by Neal Stephenson: “"You know Don Quixote?" Csongor had finally asked, after thinking about it for so long that Seamus had nearly fallen asleep on his feet.”
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari: “Miguel de Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote, wrote a tragedy called The Siege of Numantia”
The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie: “Spain's second-greatest knight-errant – El Cid, I mean, Rodrigo de Vivar, not Don Quixote”
The Naive and the Sentimental Novelist by Orhan Pamuk: “In the book he wrote on Cervantes' Don Quixote, Spanish thinker and philosopher José Ortega y Gasset says”
The Uses of Literature by Italo Calvino: Discussed repeatedly, including as a philosophical novel and via the device of the fictional Arab chronicler Cid Hamet Benengeli
Truman by David McCullough: “Listed among the books kept in Truman's small bookcase in his later-life reading corner”
Words Are My Matter by Ursula K. Le Guin: “Fiction, for Borges, thus includes history, journalism, biography, memoir, Cervantes' Don Quixote, Pierre Menard's Don Quixote...”
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver: “One week only with Don Quixote, before turning him in to be locked up again and exchanged for a new week's pile”
Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver: “Dulcinea, as in Don Quixote.”
Don Juan by George Gordon Byron: “Had not Cervantes, in that too true tale Of Quixote, shown how all such efforts fail. Of all tales 't is the saddest--and more sad, Because it makes us smile”
The Monk by Matthew Lewis: “And Belerma and Durandarte is translated from some stanzas to be found in a collection of old Spanish poetry, which contains also the popular song of Gayferos and Melesindra, mentioned in Don Quixote.”
Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham: “Athelny, with picturesque expressions and the fire of a real enthusiasm, described to him the rich delight of reading Don Quixote in the original”
Tartarin de Tarascon by Alphonse Daudet: “Three minutes later the boat reached land and Tartarin set foot on the little Barbary quay, where three hundred years earlier a galley-slave named Michael Cervantes, under the whip of an Algerian galley-master, had begun to plan the wonderful story of Don Quixote.”
Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes: “Why, when he first came I remember he used to read Herodotus for pleasure as I did Don Quixote, and couldn't have made a false concord if he'd tried ever so hard; and then I looked after his cricket."”
The Monastery by Walter Scott: “Thus I shame to tell how the sage Cid Hamet Benengeli was induced by one Juan Avellaneda to play the Turk with the ingenious Miguel Cervantes, and to publish a Second Part of the adventures of his hero the renowned Don Quixote,”
A New Life by Shimazaki Tōson: “The tercentenary of Cervantes was being marked, and in the bookshop windows new works commemorated the famous Spanish author who wrote Don Quixote. For a man devoted to letters like Kishimoto, walking past those windows made him feel all the more a traveler. [auto-translated]”