乱伦强奸

What should we know about Miguel de Cervantes鈥檚 Don Quixote鈥攃alled by many the first modern novel? Ryan Prendergast, associate professor of Spanish, and his students have a few ideas. He鈥檚 the author of Reading, Writing, and Errant Subjects in Inquisitorial Spain (Ashgate, 2011) and teaches the course Don Quixote: The Book, the Myth, the Image. This year marks the 400th anniversary of the publication of Don Quixote鈥檚 second volume.

It鈥檚 about more than windmills.

While the idea of 鈥渢ilting at windmills鈥� comes from Don Quixote, Prendergast points out that the memorable account of the character battling windmills in the belief that they鈥檙e giants is just one episode early in the massive work. And while windmills have become for most the icon of the novel, they don鈥檛 capture its thematic and stylistic complexity.

It was published in two parts, 10 years apart鈥攊n 1605 and 1615.

In the intervening decade, someone using the pen name Alonso Fern谩ndez de Avellaneda published a 鈥渇alse鈥� sequel to Don Quixote. Cervantes responds to the sequel in Part II and addresses critiques people made about Part I, even incorporating characters who have read the first volume. And while Part I has a good deal of slapstick humor, Part II is more introspective, emotional, and psychologically dark, Prendergast says.

It鈥檚 narratively complex.

Prendergast contends that Don Quixote is above all a book about the acts of reading and writing, examining what storytelling is all about. Cervantes even incorporates into Part II a character from the spurious sequel, and makes him swear that the Don Quixote of Cervantes鈥檚 Parts I and II is the 鈥渞eal鈥� Don Quixote. The novel 鈥渟peaks to the writing process and what narrative allows you to do,鈥� Prendergast says.

It鈥檚 more than a funny book, treating important social and political issues, too.

While many love the novel for its humorous adventure stories, Don Quixote also takes on such weighty subjects as relations between Catholics and Muslims in 17th-century Spain and Inquisitorial practices.

Sancho Panza is not just a sidekick: comic at times, he鈥檚 also the source of profound insights.

Typically treated as Don Quixote鈥檚 physical and psychological foil, Sancho is revealed at certain points to be a wiser character.

In 2002, it was voted the best work of fiction of all time.

One hundred authors鈥攊ncluding Seamus Heaney, Nadine Gordimer, Carlos Fuentes, Doris Lessing, and Norman Mailer鈥攆rom 54 countries chose Don Quixote as the top choice among the 鈥渂est and most central books in world literature鈥� in a survey organized by the Norwegian Nobel Institute and Norwegian Book Clubs. It earned 50 percent more votes from the writers than any other book.

鈥擪athleen McGarvey