The novel Don Quixote (/ˌdɒnkiːˈhoʊtiː/;
Spanish: Don Quijoteⓘ,
Spanish: El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha[1]) was written by the Spanish author
Miguel de Cervantes. Published in two volumes a decade apart (in 1605 and 1615), Don Quixote is one of the most influential works of literature from the
Spanish Golden Age in the Spanish literary canon. As a founding work of modern Western literature, it regularly appears high on lists of the greatest works of fiction ever published.[2] It has been the inspiration for a wide array of cultural adaptations.
1613 Cardenio, a lost, presumably
Shakespearean play, is believed to be based on an episode in Part One of Don Quixote.[4]
1694 The Comical History of Don Quixote is a comic play by
Thomas D'Urfey with music and songs by composers including
Henry Purcell. The play was written in three parts, adding up to more than seven hours of playing time. It is seldom if ever performed today, and never at its full length.
2016 The
Royal Shakespeare Company's version of Don Quixote, with
David Threlfall in the title role and
Rufus Hound as Sancho Panza, played at the Swan Theatre and was revived in 2018 for shows at the Garrick Theatre in London.
1759–1767 The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by
Laurence Sterne was influenced by Cervantes' novel in several ways, including its genre-defying structure and the Don Quixote-like character of Uncle Toby. Intentional nods include Sterne's own description of his characters' "Cervantic humour" and naming Parson Yorick's horse '
Rocinante'.
1760-1762 The Life and Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves by
Tobias Smollett. Smollett shows the influence of Don Quixote in many of his novels (e.g. the character of Lismahago in Humphry Clinker), but this is his "own explicit version of the D[on] Q[uixote] story." Smollett had also produced his own translation of Don Quixote in 1755.[6]
1791 Anonymous [
Elizabeth Purbeck and
Jane Purbeck]. William Thornborough, the benevolent Quixote. In four volumes. London: George, George, John and James Robinson, 1791.[7]
1797 [
Elizabeth Purbeck and
Jane Purbeck]. The history of Sir George Warrington; or the political Quixote. By the author of The female Quixote. In three volumes. London: John Bell, 1797.[8] (2nd ed. with corrected attribution came out that same year.)[9]
1856 Madame Bovary by
Gustave Flaubert was heavily influenced by Don Quixote.[10][11] In the view of the critic Howard Mancing, "of all the many female incarnations of Don Quixote, Emma [Bovary] is the most original, profound and influential. Flaubert's admiration for Cervantes knew no bounds. It has been suggested that it was his reading of Don Quixote in childhood which convinced Flaubert to become a novelist rather than a dramatist." In Madame Bovary, the heroine, like Don Quixote, tries to escape from the tedium of provincial life through books, in Bovary's case women's romances and historical novels.[12]
1869 The Idiot by
Dostoyevsky. Prince Myshkin, the title character of the novel, was explicitly modeled on Don Quixote.[13]
1881 The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas (original, Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas), by
Machado de Assis, uses many narrative techniques used by Cervantes in the Quixote. Although the author is also influenced by Stern (Tristram Shandy, a novel that also owes a great deal to the Quixote), the narrator in the novel, Brás Cubas, also makes frequent allusion to Cervantes and The Quixote. It is considered one of the greatest Latin American novels due to its innovation, avant-guard techniques, and proto- magic realism elements. Due to the limited prominence of the Portuguese language from the time it was published until the late 20th century, only in the past 30 years the novel has received broader appreciation and appropriate translations for a literary work of this stature.
1917-1919 (published posthumously in 1948) "The Truth About Sancho Panza" by
Franz Kafka imagines Sancho as Author.
1914 Vida de Don Quijote y Sancho (usually translated into English as Our Lord Don Quixote) by
Miguel de Unamuno often perceived one of the earliest works applying existential elements to Don Quixote. The book, on Unamuno's own admission, is of mixed genre with elements of personal essay, philosophy and fiction.
1927 The Return of Don Quixote by
G. K. Chesterton tells the tale of the librarian Michael Herne, who, after performing as the lead actor in a medieval theater play, finds contemporaneous realities unacceptable and decides to carry on with medieval costume, then gets elected to a dictatorial real kingship, but disappoints the rich who helped him get there, and then has to roam the country in the fashion of Don Quixote, since persecuted by the police after losing his short-lived power.
1939 "
Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" by
Jorge Luis Borges is a short story about a fictional 20th-century writer who re-authors Don Quixote. According to the story, "The text of Cervantes and that of Menard are verbally identical, but the second is almost infinitely richer."
1949 Silverlock by
John Myers Myers The novel's settings and characters, aside from the protagonist, are all drawn from history, mythology, and other works of literature.
1960 The Art of the Novel by
Milan Kundera extensively references and extols Cervantes' Don Quixote as the first, and perhaps best, novel. Kundera writes that his own novels are an homage to Cervantes.
1966 The Order of Things by
Michel Foucault. Quixote's confusion in Cervantes' novel plays an important part in Foucault's book, serving as an illustration of the transition to a new configuration of thought in the late sixteenth century.
1982 Monsignor Quixote by
Graham Greene is a
pastiche of Cervantes' novel. Greene's character Monsignor Quixote regards himself as a descendant of Don Quixote.
1985 City of Glass in The New York Trilogy by
Paul Auster. In this postmodern detective story, the protagonist, Daniel Quinn, is modeled after Don Quixote. The novella includes an explicit discussion of Don Quixote's authorship.
1986 Don Quixote: Which Was a Dream, a novel by
Kathy Acker, revisits the themes of Cervantes' text to highlight contemporary issues.
1995 The Moor's Last Sigh by
Salman Rushdie, with its central themes of the world being remade and reinterpreted, draws inspiration (as well as names and characters) from Cervantes's work.
1997 One Piece, a Japanese manga series by Eiichiro Oda, features Donquixote Doflamingo, an antagonist presumably named after Don Quixote.
1998 Yo-Yo Boing!, a
Spanglish comic novel by
Giannina Braschi, features conversations between Don Quixote, Sancho Panza, and Dulcinea, who have been transported into 20th-century New York.
2009 The Shadow Dragons, the fourth novel in
James A. Owen's series The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica, features Don Quixote as one of its major characters.
2011-2021 The Expanse, a series of science fiction novels by
James S. A. Corey, features main character James Holden, who is often compared to Don Quixote for his idealism and chivalry. In the first book,
Leviathan Wakes, Holden names his spaceship, the Rocinante, after Don Quixote's horse. [15]
2009 Going Bovine by Libba Bray, a YA novel about a 16-year-old high school student with "transmissible spongiform encephalopathy" (mad cow disease) and contains many allusions to “Quixote” in plot, theme and characters.
2013 Don Q. Public (novel) by John Opsand Sutherland is a modern take on Don Quixote as a comic book superhero.[16]
2015 Supernaturalseason 10's Book of the Damned features protagonist
Castiel searching for his grace, his angelic essence which turns out to be in a copy of Don Quixote with the riddle leading to it being the quote "what's the maddest thing a man can do? Let himself die."
1721 Les folies de Cardenio - ballet de cour by
Michel Richard de Lalande based on an episode from the novel; some roles in the ballet were danced by young Louis XV.
1727 Don Chisciotte in Corte della Duchessa written for performance in Vienna by
Antonio Caldara
1730 (revised 1733) Sancio Panza Governatore dell’isola Barattaria written for performance in Vienna by
Antonio Caldara
1739 Amor medico, o sia il Don Chisciotte (Die Liebe ein Arzt, oder Don Quixote), opera libretto printed in a bilingual edition anonymously in Vienna
1777 Il curioso indiscreto, an opera composed by
Pasquale Anfossi based on chapters 33 and 34 of the novel, and later revised in Vienna 1783 and 1785, including insertion arias by
Mozart.
1827 Die Hochzeit des Camacho is an early opera by
Felix Mendelssohn based on the same section of the book on which Telemann based his opera.
1830 Don Chisciotte alle nozze di Gamaccio, an opera composed by
Saverio Mercadante
1833 Don Quixote or The Knight of the Woeful Countenance: A Romantic (Musical) Drama in Two Acts by
George Almar, premiered in London at the Surry Theater, April 8, 1833.
1869 "Combate de Don Quijote contra las Ovejas" is a
scherzo for orchestra by the Spanish composer
Ruperto Chapí.
1869
Ludwig Minkus composed the music for
Marius Petipa's ballet Don Quixote, which was staged for the
Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in 1869, and was revised in more elaborate production for the
Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg in 1871. The libretto was based on the same chapters in the novel which attracted Mendelssohn and Telemann. Petipa's ballet was substantially revised by
Alexander Gorsky in 1900 for the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, a version which was staged for the Imperial in 1902. Gorsky's 1902 staging was revisited by several other choreographers in the twentieth century in Soviet Russia, and has since been staged by ballet companies all over the world. In 1972,
Rudolf Nureyev filmed his version of the ballet with the Australian Ballet.
1898 (premiere) Don Quixote, a
tone poem by
Richard Strauss (subtitled "Fantastic Variations for Large Orchestra on a Theme of Knightly Character"). The music makes explicit reference to several episodes in the novel, including the sheep (described by
flutter-tongued brass) and windmill episodes.
1914 Don Quixote Suite for concert band by the Bohemian-American composer and arranger
Vincent Frank Safranek.
1923 (premiere) Master Peter's Puppet Show, a puppet opera by
Manuel de Falla, is based on an episode from Book II and was first performed at the Salon of the Princess de Polignac in Paris.
1932-4 Don Quichotte à Dulcinée ("Don Quixote to Dulcinea") by
Maurice Ravel, three songs for voice and piano set to Quixote poems by
Paul Morand (composed in 1932 and orchestrated in 1934).
1965 Man of La Mancha, a full-length Broadway musical with music by
Mitch Leigh, lyrics by
Joe Darion and based on
Dale Wasserman's non-musical teleplay I, Don Quixote. Written to be performed without intermission, the musical combines episodes from the novel with a story about
Miguel de Cervantes, as a play within a play. It premiered in 1965 and was filmed in 1972. It featured the song "
The Impossible Dream", which was subsequently recorded by many artists.
1972 Don Quixote, an album by
Gordon Lightfoot; also a song by that title on the album. The album peaked at #42 on the Billboard charts.
1982-3 Don Quixote and Sancho Panza (subtitled A
Bagatelle Cycle), a work for two guitars by British composer
Ronald Stevenson consisting of a double theme with seventeen variations, based on various events in Cervantes' novel. The work premiered in
Glasgow in 1998.
1994 Dulcinea is an album by
Toad the Wet Sprocket, whose title is a reference to Quixote's love interest in Cervantes' novel. The lyrics of two songs on the album, "Crowing" and "Windmills", allude to elements from the novel.
1998 La Leyenda de la Mancha, a concept album by the Spanish group
Mägo de Oz ("Wizard of Oz"), is a modern retelling of the story of Don Quixote.
2000 "Don Chisciotte" (Italian spelling of Don Quixote), a song by Italian singer songwriter
Francesco Guccini from his album
Stagioni. Don Chisciotte is a faithful retelling of a majority of the story.
2008 Symphony No. 3 ″Don Quixote″ with movements I. The Quest, II. Dulcinea, III. Sancho and the Windmills, IV. The Illumination; a work for concert band published by the American composer Robert W. Smith.
2010 "Don Quixote (Spanish Rain)", a song by British band
Coldplay, premiered during the Latin American leg of the
Viva la Vida Tour. The song's lyrics refer to elements from the novel.
2013 "Tilting against Windmills", a song by Canadian
progressive metal band
Protest the Hero from their album Volition; the song's lyrics allude to the idiom, explicitly referenced in the title.
2014 "Being Dead (Don Quixote)", a stage work by
Kerith Manderson-Galvin, presented by
MKA: Theatre of New Writing that has been touring Australia periodically since. The title of the work also references the book by Kathy Acker.
2021 "Dear Sancho", a song released as a single by British band
The Trudy. The song follows the relationship between Don Quixote and his everyman squire, Sancho Panza.[20]
2022 "Don Quixote", a song by K-pop boyband
Seventeen from their album Face the Sun.
2024 "QUIXOTE NUEVO", a play written by Octavio Solis. [21]
1933: Don Quixote (France/UK), directed by
G. W. Pabst, with music by Jacques Ibert. Rather than going out with foreign language subtitles, this version was made three times in the same year, and in three different languages: French, English and German. All three starred the great Russian bass
Feodor Chaliapin, and utilized the same script, set designs and costumes.
1934: Don Quixote (US), a 1934 animated short film directed by
Ub Iwerks and published as a
Comicolor cartoon. It is loosely based on the novel.
1961: Have Gun - Will Travel (American TV series), an American western series that features multiple mentions to Don Quixote, including an episode titled "A Knight to Remember" where the main character is employed to capture and defeat an elderly man who believes he is Don Quixote and whose only wish is to achieve knighthood.
1968: The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (US), a live-action/animated series. Episode 2, "Huck of La Mancha", features the live-action Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and Becky Thatcher helping the animated Quixote and Panza to challenge the brigand leader Don Jose.
1971: They Might Be Giants (US), directed by
Anthony Harvey and based on the play of the same name (both written by
James Goldman), whose title is a reference to Quixote's exploit of tilting at windmills, believing them to be giants.
George C. Scott and
Joanne Woodward's characters have a relationship similar to Quixote and Panza, with one appearing delusional and the other seeing reality clearly but following the "visionary" out of concern and friendship.
1976: The Amorous Adventures of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza (US), directed by Raphael Nussbaum, a
softcore erotic musical adaptation.
1978-80 Don Quijote de La Mancha (Spain), an animated series produced and distributed by Romagosa Internacional and translated into several languages (current web
in Spanish and
in English).
2002: El caballero Don Quijote (Spain),
Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón's two-hour theatrical film based on Part II of the novel. This belated sequel to Gutiérrez Aragón's 1991 miniseries starred a completely different cast, including Juan Luis Galiardo as Quixote.
2007: Donkey Xote (Spain/Italy), a CG-animated film that re-envisions the book with Sancho's donkey Xote as the lead character.
2009: Defendor (Canada), a
superherocomedy-drama film about a Quixotic and mentally challenged vigilante who uses wasps and marbles to fight drug smugglers and crooked cops.
2012: The Newsroom (US), a drama series that features multiple mentions to Don Quixote, including an episode titled "I'll Try to Fix You".
2016:
Disney was announced to be in development of an adaptation of the novel about a man who believes he is a knight, to be
streamed on
Disney+ with Gordon Gray and
Billy Ray producing; Ray is also writing the script. Some sources state that the plan is to adapt the work in a tone that recalls the madcap and fantastical nature of the Pirates of the Caribbean film series.[26]
2018: The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (UK/Belgium/France/Portugal/Spain), directed and co-written by
Terry Gilliam. In production since 1989, rather than a direct adaptation, the film is set in modern times and features an old man (
Jonathan Pryce) who is convinced he is the famous literature character.[27]
2018: Maniac (US), a
Netflix miniseries directed and co-written by
Cary Joji Fukunaga. Episode 2 is titled "Windmills" in reference to Don Quixote. There are a plethora of references to the book throughout the series, one of which is when the two protagonists (
Emma Stone and
Jonah Hill) attend a seance at the Neberdine mansion looking for the novel's lost 53rd chapter.
Don Quixote has inspired many illustrators, painters and sculptors, including
Gustave Doré,
Pablo Picasso,
Salvador Dalí and
Antonio de la Gandara. The French artist Honoré Daumier produced 29 paintings and 49 drawings based on the book and characters of Don Quixote, starting with an exhibition at the 1850
Paris Salon, which would later inspire Pablo Picasso. In 1863, Gustave Doré produced a large set of drawings based on Don Quixote. On 10 August 1955, Pablo Picasso drew an illustration of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza for the journal weekly Les Lettres françaises (week of 18–24 August 1955), which quoted from the Daumier caricature of a century before. Widely reproduced, today it is the iconic image used by the Spanish government to promote Cervantes and Don Quixote.
Don Quixote and Sancho Panza by
Honoré Daumier. Black crayon and wash. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York (c. 1850)