A very brief retelling of Miguel de Cervantes' novel Don Quixote
The main character of Miguel Cervantes is described as an elderly man who is in love with romances of chivalry and dreams of adventure. He decides to become a knight errant to protect the weak and oppressed. As a squire, he takes with him Sancho Panza, who will be responsible for the voice of reason in the novel, and also chooses the lady of his heart, Dulcinia.
All of Don Quixote's adventures do not end as he would like and he, sick, returns home. Don Quixote dies, bequeathing everything to his niece on the condition that she never marry a man who read chivalric novels.
List and brief description of the heroes of Miguel de Cervantes's novel “Don Quixote”
List and brief description of the main characters
- Don Quixote - knight errant, brave but naive
- Sancho Panza is his squire, reasonable and practical
List and brief description of minor characters
- Dulcinia Toboso - the lady of Don Quixote's heart
- Antonia - Don Quixote's niece
- Housekeeper - runs Don Quixote's household
- The priest and the barber are friends of Don Quixote
- The innkeeper jokingly knights Don Quixote
- Freston - Don Quixote's imaginary enemy, an evil wizard
"Don Quixote" in Russia
The hidalgo himself, of course, did not get that far in his travels. But an exhibition in the Bread House of the Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve will be dedicated to the 400th anniversary of the release of the famous epic. The exhibition opened on June 10 as part of the museum’s “Book of the Century” project.
History of the novel in Russia. The first translation of Cervantes's book into Russian appeared 150 years after its publication. 1769 Empress Catherine II is passionate about courtly culture, knightly carousels are held in St. Petersburg - in the image and likeness of knightly tournaments, and near Moscow the construction of Tsaritsyn - a residence in the Gothic style - is being prepared. It is within these walls, so reminiscent of the medieval castles of Spain, that an exhibition dedicated to Russian quixoticism will open.
“Don Quixote exists in Russian life in two ways: as an idea, a name-parable, the interpretation of which has changed, and as a whole string of living incarnations, historical embodiments of quixoticism ,” wrote the poet and literary critic Yuri Aikhenvald.
Based on this idea, two Russian emperors will be presented at the exhibition as “historical incarnations”: Paul I and Nicholas I. In what views and actions of these crowned heads do knightly traits appear?
Paul I. Chivalry as an important feature of the royal character is noted by many memoirists. "Russian Don Quixote". This is what Napoleon called Pavel, to whom the Russian autocrat offered a duel in Hamburg to put an end to the destructive wars.
"…duty! Yes, this is not an empty word for someone who has been accustomed from youth to understand it the way I do. This word has a sacred meaning, before which every personal impulse retreats; everything must fall silent before this one feeling and yield to it until you disappear into the grave. This is my slogan,” said Nicholas I.
Portrait of Miguel de Cervantes
Catherine II
Paul I
Nicholas I
Contemporaries considered father and son Don Quixotes, despite the difference in actions and beliefs, character traits and worldview. The exhibition organizers tried to present a detailed portrait of the “crowned knights” and present the atmosphere of that time. Balls and duels, which were often based on a chivalrous attitude towards a lady. Atmosphere: ball gowns and ceremonial uniforms of monarchs, armor, letters and even love notes. In total there are about four hundred unique exhibits from the collections of the State Literary Museum - the main organizer of the exhibition, the Hermitage, Peterhof, Tsarskoye Selo, the Pushkin Museum, the largest libraries in the country and even the departmental archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Performance "Don Quixote" at the Bolshoi Theater, 1994
Performance "Don Quixote" at the Bolshoi Theater, 1978
Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve
The exhibition covers a century and a half - from the publication of the book in Russian until 1917. The pre-revolutionary history of “Don Quixote” in Russia and the influence of Cervantes’ novel on Russian literature and theater. The first associations associated with the novel about the Knight of the Sad Image were caught by contemporaries in the works of Karamzin, Derzhavin, and Radishchev. "Don Quixote" on stage - Fyodor Chaliapin. The great bass in 1910 first performed the main role in the opera by Jules Massenet, and in 1933 Fyodor Ivanovich played “Don Quixote” in the film of the same name directed by Georg Pabst.
The history of the novel is also its publications. The exhibition includes rare specimens in different languages dating back to the 16th century. Including unique illustrations from the 18th century by the French painter Charles Antoine Coypel and works by Gustave Doré, made a century later.
The Tsaritsyno Museum has published a catalog from which you can learn the history of the Gatchina tapestries - a gift from Louis XVI to Paul I - created from the drawings of François Boucher and Charles Coypel, illustrating the most popular plots of Cervantes' book, why the wife of Emperor Nicholas I Alexandra Feodorovna was called the "White Rose" in the family " and much more.
DOWNLOAD: “Don Quixote” in Russia and Don Quixotes on the throne PDF (1.35 Mb) Fragments of the catalog
The exhibition “Don Quixote in Russia and Don Quixote on the Throne” is held with the support of the Spanish Embassy and the Cervantes Institute in Moscow, in the cross year of the Russian language in Spain and the Spanish language in Russia. The novel, written in the Caballeros’ homeland and so beloved by the Russian reader, also became a kind of crossroads.
The exhibition is open until September 13.
A summary of Miguel Cervantes's novel "Don Quixote" in detail by chapter
Volume one
Chapter 1-4
Once upon a time in La Mancha lived Alonso Quejana, a poor man of about fifty who passionately loved chivalric romances. He read so much that he lost his mind and decided to become a knight errant to protect the weak. He sonorously called himself Don Quixote, his old nag - Rocinante, and the lady of his heart - Dulcinia of Toboso.
On the first day he reaches the tavern, but mistakes it for a castle and the innkeeper for a feudal lord. Don Quixote did not take money with him, because there was not a word about it in the novels. He is allowed to spend the night in exchange for protection and is even treated to food. The innkeeper explains to the hero that if the novel does not mention money or a change of clothes, this does not mean that the knight did not have them.
Don Quixote asks the innkeeper to honor him and knight him. In the dark, Don Quixote nearly impales a mule driver with a spear. The innkeeper manages to intervene and, in order to send the guest away, jokingly knights Don, patting him on the shoulder a couple of times.
Chapter 3-4
Don Quixote stands up for a shepherd boy who is being beaten for losing his flock of sheep. As soon as the defender leaves, the child is beaten half to death. The newly-minted knight is proud of his first feat and does not notice anything.
Don Quixote invites the peasant Sancho Panza to become his squire, he agrees. On the way, they meet merchants who see that Don Quixote is not himself and laugh at him. Don is offended and tries to attack, but falls out of the saddle. He is severely beaten.
A familiar peasant helps the wounded Don return home. Sancho and Rocinante wander behind them, loaded with armor and the remains of weapons.
Chapter 5-8
Don Quixote is delirious; his housekeeper, priest and niece look after him at home. Everyone is convinced that his mind has become clouded due to reading novels and decide to burn all the books and wall up the door to the library. Seeing this, Don Quixote becomes furious. They answer him that these are the machinations of his enemy, the wizard Freston, he believes.
Don Quixote repairs the weapon himself and stocks up with money. Soon, the heroes leave without saying goodbye. In the field, Don Quixote mistakes windmills for giants. He attacks the nearest wing, which begins to spin sharply and throws him to the ground. Don Quixote thinks that this is Freston's machinations.
Chapters 9-25
Rocinante gets too close to an unfamiliar aggressive herd. The shepherds try to drive him away with whips and even Don Quixote and Sancho get it. Don Quixote refuses to pay the bill at the tavern and quickly leaves, abandoning Sancho. In retaliation, the squire is grabbed and thrown over the gate. Don blames evil wizards for everything that happened.
While driving two herds of sheep, Don Quixote decides that these are two armies and it is his duty to help the weak. He bursts into the herd on horseback, but the shepherds drive him away with stones, causing Don Quixote to lose almost all his teeth. The heroes spend the night on the lawn, and in the morning they free the imprisoned convicts, mistaking them for the innocently oppressed. Don Quixote becomes the owner of the Mambrina helmet. In fact, this is a barber's pelvis taken by force.
At the next stop, Sancho's donkey is stolen, but this loss is made up for by the discovery of a chest of gold. Sancho gets the money, and Don takes the diary for himself. Now Sancho is rich and wants to return home. The heroes quarrel and say goodbye. Don Quixote asks the squire to deliver two letters, for Dulcinia and for his niece, but Sancho loses them.
Chapters 26-35
At home, Sancho tells the priest and the barber about his adventures. Don Quixote's friends are alarmed by the condition of the would-be knight. They track him down, lure him into a cage and forcefully take him home.
The heroes meet the shepherd boy again and learn that Don's intercession only made the situation worse. Don Quixote is upset and does not understand why.
The guards recognize Don Quixote as the man who freed the convicts. Only the intervention of the priest and his words about the knight’s madness convince them to let Don go.
The priest also resolves the conflict with the barber, from whom Don Quixote took the “helmet of Mambrina.” It turns out that Sancho's donkey was stolen by one of the freed convicts.
Volume two
Chapters 35-44
Don Quixote is slowly recovering at home. Sancho learns that a book of their adventures has been published, after reading which Don gets ready to hit the road again.
The Don asks the squire to arrange a meeting with Dulcinia, whom, as it turns out, he has never seen. Sancho points to the first girl he meets; she is not as beautiful as Don Quixote thought, and he again decides that these are the machinations of evil wizards.
Don defeats a certain Knight of Mirrors. His real name is Samson Carrasco, he is the author of a book about the adventures of our heroes. Don Quixote comfortably stays with his new acquaintance Don Diego, called the Knight of the Green Cloak. Seeing a cage with lions, Don Quixote demands to open it, but, fortunately for him, the lions do not leave the cage. Now Don Quixote asks to call himself the Knight of Lions.
At a puppet show, the hidalgo spoils all the puppets, because... takes them for living knights, but pays for the damage.
Chapters 45-60
The heroes reach the banks of the Ebro River and decide to cross it in a boat without oars. The current is very strong and the boat is sinking, it was decided to pay for the damage.
The local duke invites them to his palace. He and his courtiers have heard about the adventures of Don Quixote, want to laugh at them and come up with a series of tasks. As a reward, the Duke “gives” Sancho the island of Baratoria.
Sancho tries to rule wisely, but the Duke's servants continue to mock him. Soon the former squire became bored with the role of governor and left. At the same time, Don Quixote gets tired of living with the Duke. Friends meet on the road.
Chapters 60-74
The heroes go to Barcelona for a tournament, where Don Quixote loses to the Knight of the White Moon. It turns out to be Samson Carrasco, who takes an oath from Don Quixote to return home and not fight for a whole year. Our hidalgo is very exhausted and decides to return home.
On the way, he catches a fever and suddenly realizes how pathetic he was. Before his death, he bequeaths all his property to his niece with the condition that she will never marry a man who read chivalric novels. Sancho cries bitterly. Don Quixote dies quietly in his sleep.
The cunning hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha. novel by Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Sancho was very glad that he got off so easily, and wove three boxes, telling about his journey under the heavens...
And so the Duke finally ordered Sancho to go to governorship. The squire was dressed in a rich dress, seated on a mule, and followed by a richly decorated donkey. Sancho was convinced that it was indecent for the governor to ride on a donkey, but he was unable to completely part with his long-eared friend.
The island of Baratoria was in fact not an island at all, but one of the cities that belonged to the duke. But Sancho had little understanding of geography, so he was not at all surprised that the road to the “island” never crossed the body of water.
Everyone was waiting for new eccentricities, but Sancho behaved with dignity, although those who did not know what was the matter seemed strange to his heavy figure and kind, peasant face.
The chamberlain, disguised as a marshal, says that the new governor must prove himself as a wise judge. Therefore, people with controversial issues are brought to him. Sancho resolves all disputes brilliantly, using his powers of observation and common sense.
So, for example, two old men appeared at the governor’s chair, one of whom was leaning on a staff.
The old man without a staff complained that he had long ago lent the second man ten gold coins. The debtor assures that he paid the money back a long time ago, and the lender simply forgot about it.
- Let him take an oath in front of the governor! - the plaintiff demands.
The defendant asks the plaintiff to hold his staff, he obeys. The old man who borrowed money raises his hands to the sky and swears:
- God knows that I gave the money to this man!
Sancho Panza watches what is happening carefully, then takes out the staff and breaks it. There are coins hidden in the staff!
That is, having given a hollowed stick with coins hidden in it before the oath, the debtor was formally right: he gave the money. But it was a deception!
Sancho guessed the deceiver's intentions. The people marveled at his intelligence.
Great disappointment awaited the governor at lunch. As a mockery, they assigned Doctor Pedro Callous to him, who forbade him to eat pears, pineapples, pates, and partridges... Moreover, all the food was first brought and then removed by order of the false doctor.
First they teased Sancho's appetite, and then left him with nothing. Moreover, the Duke, who was the initiator of this fun, sent a dispatch (message, letter) to the governor, warning him that they wanted to poison Sancho. So he shouldn’t touch tasty dishes: what if they contain poison?
Sancho ate bread and grapes and went to survey his possessions. In one of the taverns he managed to have a hearty dinner of lamb with onions and veal legs. He fell asleep not hungry, but extremely dissatisfied with his new position. He dreams of getting rid of the annoying doctor and his orders.
At night he is roused from bed by screams about the attack of the conspirators. Sancho is put on heavy armor, in which he cannot not only fight, but also move. He tries to step, but falls. Torches are burning, screams are heard, people are constantly jumping over the “governor”, half-dead with fear, and even climbing onto him as if on a dais.
In the end, it is announced that the conspirators have been defeated. Sancho collapses on the bed, exhausted. In the morning, he renounces his powers as governor, saddles his beloved gray, and does not accept any gifts. He only takes a crust of bread for himself and some oats for the donkey.
On the way back, Sancho and the donkey suddenly fell into a very deep hole. Rather, it was a dry well with walls lined with stone. Below there was a branched labyrinth.
The donkey brays pitifully, Sancho also lets out cries of despair. Wandering through the labyrinth, the donkey and his owner reach a small crevice through which light breaks through.
