Why a Booktrail?
1547–1616: A masterpiece of world fiction and a brilliant satire on traditional romances
Don Quixote (Macmillan Collector’s Library)
What you need to know before your trail
Widely regarded as one of the funniest and most tragic books ever written, Don Quixote chronicles the famous picaresque adventures of the noble knight-errant Don Quixote de La Mancha and his faithful squire, Sancho Panza. Together they journey through sixteenth-century Spain in search of adventure, taking on spirits, evil enchanters and giants in a quest to perform acts of valour worthy of Dulcinea, his lady love.
Travel Guide
BookTrail Travel to La Mancha
The area is kept vague in the stories and no real names of towns etc are given. This was a deliberate action on the part of Cervantes’
“En un lugar de La Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, no ha mucho tiempo que vivía un hidalgo de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo corredor.”
(Somewhere in La Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, one of those who has a lance and ancient shield on a shelf and keeps a skinny nag and a greyhound for racing.)
El Toboso is where Don Quixote goes to seek Dulcinea’s blessings. The location of the village has never been agreed on by scholars and readers. Even Cervantes himself was vague.
Don Quixote sets out with Sancho Panza on a life of chivalric adventures in a world no longer governed by chivalric values. He wanders Spain and finds adventure in the strangest places and with the most unusual people he meets along the way.
Cervantes narrates the action himself claiming to be translating the earlier work of Cide Hamete Benengeli, a Moor who is said to have written about the true historical adventures of Don Quixote
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: Don Quixote (Macmillan Collector’s Library)
Author/Guide: Miguel De Cervantes Destination: La Mancha Departure Time: 1547–1616
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