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“Why do I care?”—connecting literary myth to real-life relevance: Miguel de Cervantes’ creation - Don Quixote (1605) tilting at windmills 米格爾·德·塞萬提斯的作品——唐吉訶德與風車戰鬥
Great Authors - Literature of the Renaissance - Cervantes, Don Quixote
https://youtu.be/VDQpT-r2-ao?si=eXIYo7AHPaJyES09
Read Don Quixote with Hardcore Literature: 
/ about ———————————— ? https://open.spotify.com/show/70IZA24... (Subscribe to the Hardcore Literature Podcast on iTunes & Spotify) https://hardcore-university.teachable... (Hardcore University, Exam Preparation Courses) https://benjaminmcevoy.com My Personal Website ———————————— Hardcore Literature Lecture Series ———————————— Contents Page: https://cutt.ly/CmNhRY3 ? War and Peace: https://cutt.ly/U3nzGma Shakespeare Project: https://cutt.ly/B3nxHH7 Moby Dick: https://cutt.ly/K3nzVKf ? Blood Meridian: https://cutt.ly/P3nz6Qp Wuthering Heights: https://cutt.ly/N3nxxYt Ulysses: https://cutt.ly/x3nxQmN Anna Karenina: https://cutt.ly/vmNhAWv Crime and Punishment: https://cutt.ly/rmNhFt5 Persuasion: https://cutt.ly/amNhX7b In Search of Lost Time: https://cutt.ly/5mNh8oD ? The Hero’s Journey: https://cutt.ly/UmNjrE3 Siddharta: https://cutt.ly/YmNjuzi Don Quixote: https://cutt.ly/cmNjoK4 ?Shakespeare’s Sonnets: https://cutt.ly/nmNlW7V Les Misérables: https://cutt.ly/J3YixoA ? The Turn of the Screw: https://cutt.ly/nToAQQ3 ? Dickens Seasonal Read: https://cutt.ly/9ToAybt Middlemarch Serial Reading: https://tinyurl.com/45rv965c ———————————— Happy reading! 0:00 why Don Quixote means so much to me 0:30 how to choose the right translation of Cervantes 2:14 do not patronise or pity the knight and squire 2:45 why everyone reads Don Quixote differently 3:15 Don Quixote is the ultimate mirror 4:20 why does Cervantes so brutally batter Don Quixote? 5:00 Shakespeare vs Cervantes 5:20 Cervantes' traumatic life 6:00 the plagiarised second part of Don Quixote 7:50 read the novel over the long term 8:45 why you should read Don Quixote now 9:30 fast vs slow reading (and bookish regrets) 10:00 the length of Don Quixote 11:00 laughing and crying whilst reading 11:30 the novel form is Cervantes' gift to the world 13:00 reading about chivalry 13:00 returning to the good old days 14:04 how to talk to other people (Chekhov, Hegel & Proust) 15:00 the love between knight and squire 15:35 collect your favourite passages 16:30 the importance of rereading 17:20 reading along with a group
https://youtu.be/dDUPu6tMWHY?si=nc4UkP6SzGoDz91S
Why should you read "Don Quixote"? - Ilan Stavans
/ teded Mounting his skinny steed, Don Quixote charges an army of giants. It is his duty to vanquish these behemoths in the name of his beloved lady, Dulcinea. There’s only one problem: the giants are merely windmills. What is it about this tale of the clumsy yet valiant knight that makes it so beloved? Ilan Stavans investigates. Lesson by Ilan Stavans, directed by Avi Ofer.Don Quixote isn’t just a madman chasing windmills—he’s every one of us who dares to believe in something bigger than what the world tells us is practical.
In Miguel de Cervantes’ novel, Don Quixote, after reading too many tales of knighthood, sets out as a self-made hero. He sees windmills and imagines giants—foolish, perhaps, but also brave. The world laughs at him, but he persists, sword in hand, fueled not by reality but by conviction. That’s why the phrase “tilting at windmills” endures: it captures both the nobility and futility of idealism.
Why should you care?
Because anyone who’s ever pursued a vision others can’t see—a cure, a cause, a breakthrough—has a bit of Don Quixote in them. In a world that rewards conformity and metrics, it takes imagination to dream, and courage to act on that dream, even if it makes you look ridiculous. And that’s what makes change possible.
Current estimates put Don Quixote (1605) at ≈ 500 million copies sold/printed, making it the best-selling single novel in history—ahead of any individual work by Shakespeare.
Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote (1605) is not only a towering work of Renaissance literature but also widely considered the first modern novel. It had a profound influence on global literature, often cited as the most widely read book in the world after the Bible. For centuries, it has sold more copies than any other novel—including those by Shakespeare.
A few key facts:
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Don Quixote was an immediate success upon publication and was translated into numerous languages early on.
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Its print circulation has historically outpaced Shakespeare’s plays on a single-title basis. While Shakespeare’s entire corpus is widely published and performed, no single play has matched the enduring, global sales of Don Quixote.
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The novel’s themes—idealism, madness, the nature of reality—transcend time and culture, making it a perennial point of reference in psychology, philosophy, politics, and science.
So yes, Cervantes' Don Quixote is not only part of Renaissance literary greatness—it’s a rare literary phenomenon that outprinted Shakespeare’s works individually and continues to speak across generations, including to today’s solitary scientists "tilting at windmills" in pursuit of truth.
