Mark Colenutt's Blog: Jousting with Windmills - Posts Tagged "dulcinea"
Handbook to QuiXote - Origins & Inspirations
Now that the book is online in paperback and eBook formats it seems only right to add some insider information concerning its beginnings and go beyond the usual back-page blurb.
When I arrived in Spain many moons ago I came with a copy of Don QuiXote. Why not? If you are keen to integrate then you should start at the top down. Just as if you are going to learn Spanish then you should also get to grips with the subjunctive as soon as you can. How can one pretend to have a grasp of their adopted homeland if they have not contemplated the nation's greatest literary work and the one all Spanish school children will have had drummed into them? It seemed a matter of politeness and simple respect to make the effort and learn about the book. And what a book. The greatest work of fiction no less! So, I wouldn't be wasting my time on some obscure and dense diatribe.
I had considered including the text in my book Jousting with Windmills but then realised two things: firstly, it would make the book a Follett epic and secondly, it warranted its own shelf space. I soon saw that such an important book had to have its own audience and it was time to piece together all the relevant information about the novel that could not be gleaned from solely reading the novel. There was too much surrounding the work, too many offshoots that required harvesting and collecting together in just one edition.
The idea then spawned others. The book should offer a one-off summary of Don Quixote, unhindered by numerous chapter numberings. One fluid text from start to finish relating the major events in the novel in about thirty pages. This way, the story could be told and anyone keen enough to want to read the original full-blown masterpiece would still have plenty to discover along their way. The literary lustful would be able to indulge their reading passion while the armchair academic would be adequately enlightened.
As I researched, it soon became clear that England had a special place in Quixote lore. No nation has produced so many translations and England was even the first country to deliver the book in a foreign tongue. The translation of the novel was a history within an art form and only served to widen the appeal and complexity of the original novel. It, therefore, had to be included.
To end I decided to take the reader to Spain and visit the very locations that they had now become familiar with from the extraordinary life of Cervantes to the stage sets of the book that possess a charm of their own. This would not have been possible had the journey not allowed for further introspection of the novel. So while travelling through the famous Campo de Montiel the reader will continue to ponder the story and fine tune a personal interpretation that everyone has extracted from the tome.
All of these points are valid marking posts to which a book may be tied and organised against. However, the driving force of my work was none of the above. The idea that I could not let rest was the cause to encapsulate the importance and meaning of the novel for a time-tied modern generation. I aimed to produce something that would permit the culturally curious devour the tastiest morsels of Cervantes' creation without overstaying the novel's welcome.
The book was therefore produced with two principal types of readers in mind, namely those who knew the novel and were curious to add to the wealth of their knowledge and those with no knowledge of the book but keen to pick up the basics without being detained any longer than necessary. If a large section of readers were curious to learn, but would not be buying the original text as other novels were more successful in attracting their attention, then my Handbook might just well be their panacea.
I hope your reading of the Handbook is as enjoyable and varied an experience as it was for me to research and write.
Mark C.Handbook to the Legacy & Odyssey of Don QuiXote: Everything the armchair academic needs to know about the greatest novel ever written
When I arrived in Spain many moons ago I came with a copy of Don QuiXote. Why not? If you are keen to integrate then you should start at the top down. Just as if you are going to learn Spanish then you should also get to grips with the subjunctive as soon as you can. How can one pretend to have a grasp of their adopted homeland if they have not contemplated the nation's greatest literary work and the one all Spanish school children will have had drummed into them? It seemed a matter of politeness and simple respect to make the effort and learn about the book. And what a book. The greatest work of fiction no less! So, I wouldn't be wasting my time on some obscure and dense diatribe.
I had considered including the text in my book Jousting with Windmills but then realised two things: firstly, it would make the book a Follett epic and secondly, it warranted its own shelf space. I soon saw that such an important book had to have its own audience and it was time to piece together all the relevant information about the novel that could not be gleaned from solely reading the novel. There was too much surrounding the work, too many offshoots that required harvesting and collecting together in just one edition.
The idea then spawned others. The book should offer a one-off summary of Don Quixote, unhindered by numerous chapter numberings. One fluid text from start to finish relating the major events in the novel in about thirty pages. This way, the story could be told and anyone keen enough to want to read the original full-blown masterpiece would still have plenty to discover along their way. The literary lustful would be able to indulge their reading passion while the armchair academic would be adequately enlightened.
As I researched, it soon became clear that England had a special place in Quixote lore. No nation has produced so many translations and England was even the first country to deliver the book in a foreign tongue. The translation of the novel was a history within an art form and only served to widen the appeal and complexity of the original novel. It, therefore, had to be included.
To end I decided to take the reader to Spain and visit the very locations that they had now become familiar with from the extraordinary life of Cervantes to the stage sets of the book that possess a charm of their own. This would not have been possible had the journey not allowed for further introspection of the novel. So while travelling through the famous Campo de Montiel the reader will continue to ponder the story and fine tune a personal interpretation that everyone has extracted from the tome.
All of these points are valid marking posts to which a book may be tied and organised against. However, the driving force of my work was none of the above. The idea that I could not let rest was the cause to encapsulate the importance and meaning of the novel for a time-tied modern generation. I aimed to produce something that would permit the culturally curious devour the tastiest morsels of Cervantes' creation without overstaying the novel's welcome.
The book was therefore produced with two principal types of readers in mind, namely those who knew the novel and were curious to add to the wealth of their knowledge and those with no knowledge of the book but keen to pick up the basics without being detained any longer than necessary. If a large section of readers were curious to learn, but would not be buying the original text as other novels were more successful in attracting their attention, then my Handbook might just well be their panacea.
I hope your reading of the Handbook is as enjoyable and varied an experience as it was for me to research and write.
Mark C.Handbook to the Legacy & Odyssey of Don QuiXote: Everything the armchair academic needs to know about the greatest novel ever written
