Don Quixote, Chapter 6 summary

What happens

1. While Don Quixote sleeps, his niece supplies the library keys, and the housekeeper brings holy water against possible enchanters.
2. The priest examines titles with Master Nicolás, rejecting the women’s demand to destroy every book without inspection.
3. They spare selected chivalric books, condemn many others, and reserve some for confinement or correction.
4. The priest rescues Tirant the White after it falls from the housekeeper’s load and recommends it to the barber.
5. The niece fears pastoral books might make her uncle a shepherd or poet, so the examination extends to poetry.
6. The priest preserves several poetry books and stops another general condemnation when the barber names The Tears of Angelica.

In this chapter

What to notice

The priest initially separates poetry from harmful chivalric reading. The niece immediately challenges this distinction by imagining another obsession for her uncle.

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