The Classical Age

In the Introduction to this book, I drew attention to the profound repercussions of Don Quixote on modern culture, in spheres ranging from classical music to strip cartoons and from highbrow literature to commercial marketing (Riley, 1988; Canavaggio, 2005). As one might expect, the most important area in which one perceives this influence is the modern novel. Cervantes's masterpiece contributed significantly to the birth of the genre in the first half of the eighteenth century, and ever since then, has been a model for general theories of it as well as an inspiration to novelists. In this final chapter I want to examine the historical evolution of this process, paying particular attention to its theoretical aspect; and for this purpose, it is necessary to take some account of the changes in the interpretation and appreciation of Don Quixote and the advances in scholarly investigation of it, since they are linked to both creation and theory.

From a modern perspective, the prevailing conception of Don Quixote in seventeenth-century Spain appears depressingly simplistic and limited. The same is true, at least until the last forty years of the century, in contemporary France and England, where, thanks to the translations by Shelton, Oudin and Rosset, which appeared in the decade 1610–20, Cervantes's novel was well known.1 In the case of Spain, which may stand as an example for the two near neighbours, the innumerable references to it in literature and life reduce the main characters and the action to impressionistic stereotypes: Don Quixote the self-appointed champion of damsels-in-distress and avenger of other people's wrongs, the worshipper of a sublimely idealised Dulcinea mouthing quaint chivalric archaisms, accompanied by greedy, lazy, cowardly, moneygrubbing Sancho. Inseparably associated with this pair are their two mounts: spindly Rocinante, and Sancho's docile, beloved donkey (Herrero-García, 1930: 353–420). However, we need to bear in mind that these impressions consist of droll remarks made by characters in plays, representations of the two heroes in festival processions, satiric caricatures in lampoons. They are far from being considered literary criticism. In fact, we seldom find that kind of criticism of outstanding Spanish literature of the age, other than in contexts that oblige the commentators to give close attention to it: such as eulogistic prefaces, exegeses of poems, translations, or which discuss it for linguistic or educational reasons.