Why a Booktrail?
1547–1616:One of the most iconic figures of Spanish literature
Don Quixote
What you need to know before your trail
Don Quixote has become so entranced by reading chivalric romances, that he determines to become a knight-errant himself. In the company of his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, his exploits blossom in all sorts of wonderful ways. While Quixote’s fancy often leads him astray – he tilts at windmills, imagining them to be giants – Sancho acquires cunning and a certain sagacity. Sane madman and wise fool, they roam the world together, and together they have haunted readers’ imaginations for nearly four hundred years.
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
Author/Guide: Miguel De Cervantes Destination: La Mancha Departure Time: 1547–1616
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