Although I am only part way through Book II (p. 586 of 940 in the softcover Penguin Classics edition), I highly recommend this book to everyone. It is 17th Century humor by a storyteller who "leaves no part of the book in the inkwell." The translator, J.M. Cohen, in his introduction, said to expect Book II to be even better than Book I which was first published in 1604.
So successful was the first part, that someone actually published a sequel while Cervantes was still working on the real sequel, Book II. First published in 1614, Book II opens with Don Quixote recovering in his home from cracked ribs from his and Sancho Panza, his squire's, earlier exploits on the trail of knight errantry. Sancho informs Don Quixote that these adventures of theirs have already been written into a book that has been widely read and enjoyed. One of Don Quixote's first reactions to this news is to worry about how his love affairs have been treated, anxious that any ill treatment of his chaste amours might "redound to the disparagement and prejudice of his lady, Dulcinea del Toboso."
The Bachelor (scholar) Sampson Carasco, who has seen this book, recounts its contents to Don Quixote in an amusing scene (Ch. 3) wherein the various episodes from Book I are briefly described, along with a few imperfections and unanswered questions that readers have been puzzled about. Among the faults he describes is that "the author inserted a novel called The Tale of the Foolish Curiosity into the history, which seemed to have nothing to do with the story of Don Quixote.
I had to laugh out loud when I read this, having wondered the very same thing myself when I was reading that part about the Foolish Curiosity. All the various tales told by the characters Don Quixote and Sancho Panza encounter, together with this unrelated tale about a doubting husband, caused me to remark to someone that the book is like what we moderns, accustomed to TV, might see as 17th Century "channel surfing" in print.
Of course, back then in the 1600's, reading was a major form of relaxation and entertainment, and a book with this variety, told by a master storyteller, was a natural hit. Even the poetry, which is not to my taste, must have been a treasure in its original language. Most of the verses seem to have been shepherds' songs, or poems which could be sung to common tunes with which most people would have been familiar.
I hope you have enjoyed this little article, and that you will be encouraged to go now and read Cervantes' master work yourself for more and better.
© 1996 Herman Fontenot
Go forward to another of the four articles on Don Quixote: 1, 2, 3, 4
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