Reference in Don Quixote
In his book Don Quixote, Cervantes introduces a gypsy thief called Ginés de Passamonte who claims to be a writer (and who later in Part II masquerades as a puppeteer while on the run). Don Quixote interrogates this writer about his book;
| “ | "Is it so good?" said Don Quixote.
"So good is it," replied Gines, "that a fig for 'Lazarillo de Tormes,' and all of that kind that have been written, or shall be written compared with it: all I will say about it is that it deals with facts, and facts so neat and diverting that no lies could match them." "And how is the book entitled?" asked Don Quixote. "The 'Life of Gines de Pasamonte,'" replied the subject of it. "And is it finished?" asked Don Quixote. "How can it be finished," said the other, "when my life is not yet finished? |
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—Literature Network: Miguel de Cervantes: Don Quixote, |
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Read more about this topic: Lazarillo De Tormes
Famous quotes containing the words reference, don and/or quixote:
“I think, for the rest of my life, I shall refrain from looking up things. It is the most ravenous time-snatcher I know. You pull one book from the shelf, which carries a hint or a reference that sends you posthaste to another book, and that to successive others. It is incredible, the number of books you hopefully open and disappointedly close, only to take down another with the same result.”
—Carolyn Wells (1862–1942)
“When you think of the huge uninterrupted success of a book like Don Quixote, you’re bound to realize that if humankind have not yet finished being revenged, by sheer laughter, for being let down in their greatest hope, it is because that hope was cherished so long and lay so deep!”
—Georges Bernanos (1888–1948)
“The treason pleases, but the traitors are odious.”
—Spanish proverb, pt. 1, bk. 4, ch. 7, quoted in Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote (1605, trans by P. Motteux)