Don Quixote is considered by most experts as the first modern novel. While many are familiar with  such words as “quixotic” and phrases like “eternal fame and glory”, and the characters of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, most have not read the Spanish version of some 800 pages, nor read a translation in its entirety.

Steve Saunders took a graduate course on this famous knight and his squire and has read Don Quixote in Spanish as well as several English translations of the book. He  also attended an NEA Seminar on Cervantes, and has had the rare privilege and pleasure of going deep into this work, and in the process has, like Quixote, gone slightly mad in studying this hero/madman.

While he has no illusions about convincing people to follow him down the above path, he would like to have you join him in a shorter journey that will give you a deeper understanding of Cervantes and the culture and times in which he wrote, and to compare his protagonists to others in our own life and times.

You are invited to share your personal views of what constitutes a hero, then and now, as well as how one would define the words “madman” and “realist”.

Are you a Quixote, an idealist seeking to change the world, or a Sancho, pragmatic and comfortable to let others “tilt at  windmills?”

Or does one need some characteristics of each to feel fulfilled in life? Are there times when we must be realists, and times when we need to stand up and be counted? Is life about both of these sides of our personalities? 

Let’s saddle up our Rocinantes and follow Quixote and Sancho for a few weeks and see where they lead us!