42 h 38 minAudiobook6 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the stories you love turn every roadside inn into a castle—and send you out to defend it?
Don Quixote, a country gentleman in La Mancha, reads tales of knights until he believes he must become one. In Miguel de Cervantes’s Spanish novel, he puts on rusty armor, mounts a bony horse, and rides out to defend the weak. But the roads hold real people, not the world his beloved books promise him.
Sancho Panza, a shrewd farmer who hopes to gain an island, joins him as his squire. Quixote sees armies where sheep graze and serves Dulcinea del Toboso, a lady he imagines from a farm girl he barely knows. Their adventures turn a joke about chivalry into a story about dreams, mockery, kindness, and the gap between what we see and what is there.
What you’ll discover
- A knight in rusty armor Follow a would-be hero whose wish to defend the weak collides with the world.
- Sancho’s hopes and proverbs Meet a squire who loves food and proverbs, and dreams of governing an island.
- Inns alive with stories Step among travelers whose tales of love and betrayal fill the roadside inns.
- Laughter with a serious heart Look beyond the absurd adventures to the stories people choose to live by.
- A narrator playing tricks Explore layers of voices that make the telling part of the adventure.
Who will love it
For readers who love comic stories with a serious heart, unlikely friendships, and the clash between dreams and reality, and anyone curious about why Don Quixote is so often named.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A gentleman reads himself out of his wits
- An inn becomes a castle
- Sancho Panza joins and the windmills rise
- Inns, stories within stories, and a barber's basin
- Penance in the mountains and a cage on a cart
- Part Two: heroes who have been read about
- Enchantments, a cave, and a cruel Duke
- What the book is really about
- A narrator who plays tricks, and a book that lasted
Who’s who
- Don QuixoteA lean gentleman of La Mancha, driven mad by chivalry books, who believes he is a knight and wants to win glory and defend the weak.
- Sancho PanzaA poor, shrewd farmer who becomes the knight's squire, hoping to be rewarded with the governorship of an island, and who loves food and proverbs.
- Dulcinea del TobosoThe lady Quixote has invented from a farm girl he barely knows, whom he serves as the ideal of beauty and virtue.
- CardenioA young gentleman who has lost his reason through love and betrayal, living wild in the mountains of the Sierra Morena.
- Sansón CarrascoA clever young graduate from the village who reads Part One and tries to trick Quixote into giving up his adventures.
- The Duke and DuchessA wealthy couple who have read about Quixote and Sancho, and who stage an elaborate game of pranks for their own amusement.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 42 h 38 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 6 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Don Quichotte in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Don Quichotte
by Miguel de Cervantès Saavedra · 1605
A country gentleman rides out to defend the weak in a Spain with no place for knights.
ChallengingOver 20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Imagine reading so many tales of knights that you decide to become one. That is what happens to a minor country gentleman in Spain.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A gentleman reads himself out of his wits
In a village in La Mancha lives a lean gentleman of about fifty. He owns an old lance, a leather shield, a thin horse and a greyhound. His one passion is books of chivalry. He reads them day and night, and he sells fields to buy more.
In the end his judgment dries up. He decides the world needs a knight errant, and that he will be one. In his mind these tales are not fiction. They are history, waiting for him to continue them.
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What is Don Quixote about?
With his squire Sancho Panza he rides across Spain, mistaking inns for castles and windmills for giants.
What does tilting at windmills mean?
It means fighting imaginary enemies or pointless causes. The phrase comes from the scene where Quixote charges at windmills, believing they are giants, and is thrown from his horse when his lance catches a sail.
Who is Dulcinea del Toboso?
Dulcinea is the lady Quixote serves as every knight must. She is his own invention, based on a farm girl from a nearby village whom he has hardly ever spoken to.
The author
Miguel de Cervantes
1547–1616 · Spanish novelist, poet and playwright
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547–1616) was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. He was born in Alcalá de Henares and died in Madrid. He published La Galatea in 1585 and Don Quixote in two parts, in 1605 and 1615. The Wanderings of Persiles and Sigismunda appeared after his death, in 1617.
More by Miguel de Cervantès Saavedra
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