Adventures of Don Quixote #245522

To appreciate Don Quixote, we have no need for lengthy introductions. To understand him, read, and appreciation will come. Cervantes wished to, reveal in their true light, the farcical, extravagant, nonsensical Libros ale Caballeria (books on knight-errantry), which put forth a false ideal, ignoring the true chivalry of a true knight, and by this false ideal did great harm in Spain. The result was Don Quixote, which is at the same time a novel, a satire, a history and a picture of Spanish life. Do not thinkthat Cer vantes mocked the great' ideals of chivalry. He loved truth, uprightness and courage — his own career provesw tihs — but he wished to Show that valour, generosity, hope and justice were the bases of chivalric life. Don Quixote has been thought to be mad, but if mad ness consists in going through the world seeking to combat ignorance, cruelty, superstition and roguery, we must confess that he was not sane, and saw life in a mirage of the vicious books on chivalry. Sancho Panza is a very human personage. He is a peasant, ignorant but shrewd, who accompanies a master keen to fight injustice, knavery, and to pro tect the poor and the humble, but who, with a greater knowledge of mankind, tries to protect him from those self-seekers who might impose upon his good nature and his eagerness to help the oppressed.