John: I'm the one who will be posting most (if not all) of these. I'm 23, a year and a half removed from school, where I studied Civil Engineering and Political Science. I like to read, but I have no real literary foundation except what little I received in high school.
Jeff: My dad, just turned 50 last year, has been working as an accountant for 25+ years. He too likes to read, but to call him a literary critic would be more than a bit of a stretch.
That said, we're both excited about what's happening with this project, and enjoying the process that we'll be going through.
As for the first book that we're reading, I imagine it will be the oldest of all the books we read, as the first part was published in 1605, followed by the second part in 1615. Written by Miguel Cervantes in his native Spanish, my dad and I are reading the 2003 translation by Edith Grossman. I'd be lying if I said we picked this specific translation for any specific reason; rather, it was the first copy I found at the book store.
The goal is to read about 3 chapters a night, which means we should make it through the 127 chapters of the book in just about a month and a half. The assignment for our first night (Christmas night -- I'm trying to catch up with these posts!) was to read the Prologue, the poetry section preceding the actual story, and then Chapter I.
My summary and reaction, written the next morning and emailed to my dad, follows below:
So what did we learn last night?
In the prologue, Cervantes was worried that his book wouldn't seem as official or respectable without a proper prologue and the proper references and poetry written by other respectable authors. His buddy then tells him to essentially just make it all up, and nobody will know the difference once they start reading the book itself.
The poetry, while a bit bizarre, serves the purpose that Cervantes' friend suggested. They're all made up poems, addressed from fictional knights and other characters of books past addressed to characters that we will soon become familiar with.
Finally, the first chapter introduces us to the man himself, Don Quixote de La Mancha. We learn a little bit about him, but must importantly we learn that he is obsessed with books about chivalry and knight errants. (I meant to look up specifically what that term means) He has a bunch of things that he wants to accomplish in life, but all of those fall to the wayside because of his obsession with reading about knights and his decision to become one. Upon deciding to become a knight, he chooses arbitrarily "knightly" names for the three main characters in what will become his story. Himself: Don Quixote de La Mancha. His horse: Rocinante. And the lady whose heart he strives for: Dulcinea of Toboso.
Later that day, I looked up the definition of knight errant, which wikipedia explains as: A knight-errant is a figure of medieval chivalric romance literature. The adjective errant (meaning "wandering, roving") indicates how the knight-errant would wander the land in search of adventures to prove his chivalric virtues, either in knightly duels (pas d'armes) or in some other pursuit of courtly love.
Check back soon for the next post, covering chapters II-IV, and my dad's first turn at recapping the story!
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