Don Quixote was not the type of book that I had thought it would be. I had imagined that he and Sancho Panza waltzed around the countryside wreaking havoc with little harm to themselves. The reality is that whatever damage they do to others, after most of the adventures in this first part they are thrashed within an inch of their lives. Even Don Quixote's miserable horse Rozinante is not spared, being drubbed with staves until he could not remain standing.
The beginnings of these rather inauspicious adventures is the reading of many books on chivalry by the esteemed Don Quixote of La Mancha. He becomes increasingly obsessed with the subject to the point that he sells parcels of his land to obtain and read more books. He was particularly taken with the writings of one, Feliciano de Silva.
One day, at 50 years of age, he decided that he must become a knight-errant and roam the countryside righting wrongs. He cobbled together a pitiful helmet, an ancient set of armour and lance, and a flea-bitten horse.
The first wrong that he "rights" ends up in the person he saves being flayed three times harder than he originally was going to be. This is a recurring theme in Don Quixote. The people he helps either end up being in a worse situation then they would have been in or they are unjustly attacked by Don Quixote because he has mistaken them for vile villains.
Throughout his travels he repeatedly mistakes inns for castles, innkeepers for lords, and innkeepers' daughters for beautiful damsels.
Eventually, after wreaking havoc across the countryside he travels to a deserted valley to escape from the Brotherhood (a religious organization responsible for maintaining law and order). While in this valley Don Quixote decides to do penance until the woman of his amorous intentions, a lusty maiden whom he names Dulcinea de Toboso, releases him from his self-inflicted punishment by promising to be his beloved. To make Dulcinea aware of his predicament Don Quixote sends Sancho Panza to bring a letter to her. Sancho promptly forgets the letter and sets off without it.
When Sancho is about halfway to the the "damsel" he meets with two men from their village. When he tells them of Don Quixote's predicament they immediately set out to find him. Many adventures and some fairly interesting subplots later, they arrive at Don Quixote's home.
There they decide to leave him until he recovers from his delusions. Unfortunately this is not to be. Don Quixote is as mad as ever and plans to leave with Sancho Panza if they are afforded the meagrest of opportunities.
This madness of Quixote's is a curious form of delusion. The effects of it to distort reality in his mind occur only where knight-errantry is involved. In everything else he is very well reasoned and articulate. Indeed, he is so erudite as to be the superior in knowledge and wisdom to all other well-educated people in the story. It is this one fantasy he has that corrupts and complicates his life: that he is a knight-errant and must right wrongs.
Thus ends the first part of Don Quixote.
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