Reviews with content warning for Racism - El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha

After years of feeling intimidated by this book, I finally felt I was in a place where I wanted to pick up this book and give it a try. My grandmother loved this book and toward the end of her life, we connected a bit through books. I regret not picking up Don Quixote in her lifetime, but I’m glad I didn’t just say ‘oh well’ and move on.

His mind having been taken over by the many worlds of literature, Don Quixote deems himself knight-errant and sets off in search of quests of his own. Sancho Panza, his loyal squire, accompanies him. The two of them embark on many adventures.

I realized very quickly that Don Quixote is not the dueling epic I assumed it to be. What I found, I enjoyed far more. It’s a story of madness, shall we say, and disillusion, but there is something very relatable in that in the modern day. Haven’t most of us picked up a book as a form of escapism? Don’t readers at some point wish they could get lost in a literary world? In that regard, I found Cervantes to be ahead of his time. That said, it’s also very much a classic, and a wordy one at that.

Though I took my time with this book, I often felt that the scenes were dragging on much longer than they needed to, but I suppose that’s the curse of being used to modern books. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and soaked in so many of the passages. I also cherished getting to experience a piece of my grandmother in a way.

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cjwh1tn3y's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Thus copy was 940 pages. Good luck o7

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nineinchnails's review against another edition

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adventurous funny slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

the first half was pretty repetitive but it was genuinely funny and if you ignore the sexism and racism it holds up fairly well considering it was written like 400 years ago. i wouldn’t say this was a life changing book but i really enjoyed it and it was so interesting to see how much of it has influenced other works!

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stindex's review against another edition

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dark sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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woweewhoa's review against another edition

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adventurous funny slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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m4rtt4's review against another edition

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adventurous funny slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

the original version of 'he plays too much video games'.

In all seriousness, this was actually worth reading despite its length. The story was really funny and clever, and I loved reading about Don Quijote's shenanigans! Being shorter would have made the book better, though — I would delete all the unnecessary character stories that didn't involve Don Quijote (towards the end there were quite a few of these instances).

Obviously this books comes with some misogyny and racism (I mean, what would you expect from 16th-17th century Europe?) but there were some surprisingly modern takes as well; here are my favourite ones:
1. women don't owe men sex or any other kinds of attention
2. prostitution would be safer if it was practiced under legal conditions
3. capitalism is bad

it was a fun ride, but I'm also glad that it's finally over.

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lynxpardinus's review against another edition

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adventurous funny

2.25

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mihai26's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This was such an incredibly hard book to finish. I can understand and appreciate the metafiction parts, but besides that, I could not stand the plot or the characters. It is filled with too much misogyny and racism, the story did not spark any emotions, neither the tragedy nor the comedy parts. I acknowledge the time this novel was written in, but it is honestly not worth any reader's time unless you are studying literature.

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