DON QUIJOTE

Don Quixote, Paragraph 1: A village in La Mancha

The first sentence of the novel. A narrator who will not name the village introduces a country gentleman by the things he owns.

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• 1.1.1 A village in La Mancha. In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I do not care…
• 1.1.2 What he ate in a week. A stew with more beef in it than mutton, cold chopped meat most nights,…
• 1.1.3 His good clothes. The rest of it went on a coat of fine broadcloth and velvet breeches…
• 1.1.4 The household. In his house he kept a housekeeper past forty, a niece not yet twenty,…
• 1.1.5 His age and looks. Our gentleman was getting on for fifty. He was sturdy in build, lean in…
• 1.1.6 Quijada, Quesada or Quejana. Some say his surname was Quijada, or Quesada, for the authors who write about…
• 1.1.7 The reading begins. You must know, then, that this gentleman, in his idle hours, which were most…
• 1.1.8 He sells land for books. His eagerness and folly in this went so far that he sold many acres…
• 1.1.9 Feliciano de Silva’s prose. And of them all, none pleased him as much as the books of the…
• 1.1.10 The reason of the unreason. “The reason of the unreason done to my reason so weakens my reason that…
• 1.1.11 Not even Aristotle. Over phrases like these the poor gentleman was losing his wits. He lay awake…
• 1.1.12 The wounds of don Belianís. He was not so happy with the wounds that don Belianís gave and took,…
• 1.1.13 The unfinished adventure. Even so, he praised the author for ending his book with the promise of…
• 1.1.14 Arguments with the priest. He often argued with the priest of his village, a learned man with a…
• 1.1.15 The barber’s verdict. but Master Nicolás, the barber of the same village, said that none came near…
• 1.1.16 His brain dried up. In short, he buried himself so deeply in his reading that he spent his…
• 1.1.17 Everything he read was true. His imagination filled up with everything he read in the books, enchantments and quarrels,…
• 1.1.18 The Cid and the Knight of the Burning Sword. He used to say that the Cid Ruy Díaz had been a very good…
• 1.1.19 Bernardo, Roland and the giant Morgante. He thought better of Bernardo del Carpio, because at Roncesvalles he had killed Roland…
• 1.1.20 Reinaldos de Montalbán, his favorite. But above all he loved Reinaldos de Montalbán, most of all when he saw…
• 1.1.21 A good kicking for Galalón. For the chance to give that traitor Galalón a good kicking, he would have…
• 1.1.22 The strangest thought. In short, with his wits now gone for good, he came up with the…
• 1.1.23 He decides to become a knight errant. And it was this: it seemed to him fitting and necessary, both for the…
• 1.1.24 Righting every wrong. and to practise everything he had read that knights errant practised, righting every kind…
• 1.1.25 Emperor of Trebizond, at least. The poor man already saw himself crowned, by the valor of his arm, emperor…
• 1.1.26 The great-grandfathers’ armor. And the first thing he did was to clean some armor that had belonged…
• 1.1.27 The pasteboard helmet. He cleaned it and mended it as best he could, but he saw that…
• 1.1.28 One blow undoes a week. It is true that, to test whether it was strong and could stand up…
• 1.1.29 He declares it a fine helmet. and he did not like the ease with which he had smashed it to…
• 1.1.30 A look at the nag. Then he went to look at his nag. It had more cracks in its…
• 1.1.31 Four days to name a horse. Four days went by while he imagined what name to give it, because, as…
• 1.1.32 A name to match the new calling. and so he tried to fit it with one that would show what it…
• 1.1.33 The name Rocinante. And so, after many names that he made up, crossed out and threw away,…
• 1.1.34 Eight days to name himself. With a name given to his horse, and so much to his liking, he…
• 1.1.35 The example of Amadís. But he remembered that the valiant Amadís had not been content to call himself…
• 1.1.36 Don Quijote de la Mancha. so, like a good knight, he chose to add the name of his own…
• 1.1.37 A knight without a lady. So, with his armor cleaned, the morion made into a closed helmet, a name…
• 1.1.38 If I should meet a giant. If I, for my sins or by good luck, run into some giant out…
• 1.1.39 A present for his lady. wouldn’t it be good to have someone to send him to as a present,…
• 1.1.40 The giant Caraculiambro. “I, my lady, am the giant Caraculiambro, lord of the island of Malindrania, beaten…
• 1.1.41 Oh, how glad he was. Oh, how glad our good knight was when he had made this speech, and…
• 1.1.42 The girl in the next village. And so it was, people believe, that in a village near his own there…
• 1.1.43 Aldonza Lorenzo. Her name was Aldonza Lorenzo, and he thought it right to give her the…
• 1.1.44 Dulcinea del Toboso. and, looking for a name that would not stray far from his own and…

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