Don Quixote Short Summary

Don Quixote is a book by Miguel de Cervantes. It focuses on Alonso, who calls himself Don Quixote of La Mancha (somewhere in Spain). He intends to lead the life of a hero from the many pieces of literature he has read. He has the determination to defeat evil and protect the weak.

A Synopsis of the Story

The story starts when he is fifty years. Alonso spends too much time reading and lacks sleep. He believes in fiction and hence decides to take an adventure as a protagonist and names himself Don Quixote. He takes a horse some armor and even selects a farm girl (named Aldonza Lorenzo) to become his lady without her knowledge. He even names her Dulcinea. He leaves for his journey and gets to a castle which was an inn in reality. It had prostitutes whom he saw as ladies and the innkeeper as the lord of the castle. He spends his night there and gets into a fight with drivers. In the morning, he leaves.

In his journey, he comes across a boy receiving a beating from his master and helps him. Quixote gets beaten up later after attacking some traders with the thought that they insulted Dulcinea. He is unconscious when a peasant takes him home to recover. While the man is unconscious, his housekeeper and niece among some locals destroy his fictional books.

The library is sealed, and Quixote is told a wizard did it. Quixote takes Sancho Panza with him on the next journey, and they leave at dawn. The most famous section of this novel is when Quixote is knight fighting giants who were windmills in reality. In the next part of their quest, they meet a lady accompanied by friars and Quixote believes the lady is held against her will. There is a battle that results in the lady asking his companions to surrender to Quixote.

They get to another inn and Sancho, and Don Quixote engage in another fight due to a misunderstanding leaving them injured. The second part of the novel opens with some strangers mocking the two and subjecting Quixote to tests of chivalry for Dulcinea. Sancho is unable to locate Dulcinea and instead finds some peasant girls and tries to convince Quixote that they are her and that they looked different because of a spell. Quixote loses to the knight of White Moon and according to the terms has to give up the chivalry for a year. This is a ploy to make him cured by then. Quixote becomes ill after his return to the village and dies.