The pencil engraving of the errant Knight of La Mancha tilting at windmills with his portly squire astride a donkey is one of the most enduring images in the popular imagination. However, the image belies the fantastically complex, beguiling and sophisticated story on which it is based. Four hundred years ago Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote was published in Madrid. It was an immediate success and recognised as one of the classic texts of Western Literature, revered by writers such as Sterne, Goethe, Flaubert, Dostoevsky, Kafka and Melville.
Don Quixote tells the story of an unlikely hero. An impoverished country gentleman goes mad from reading too much and decides to put the world to rights by becoming a knight errant. The novel is based on his delusional chivalric ideals which bump against the humdrum of reality and the views of his more earth-bound companion, Sancho Panza.
So how has the book endured over the centuries? What was the relationship between Cervantes' work and the world of 17th century Spain in which he lived? In what ways was Don Quixote an interpretation of the age which hitherto had not been articulated? And can it live up to the claim that it was the first European novel?
Contributors
Barry Ife, Cervantes Professor Emeritus at King's College London
Edwin Williamson, Professor of Spanish Studies at the University of Oxford
Jane Whetnall, Senior Lecturer in Hispanic Studies at Queen Mary, University of London
