Miguel de Cervantes - Don Quixote

(4.7 stars; 21 reviews)

Widely regarded as the first modern novel, Miguel de Cervantes's classic tale chronicles the adventures of the knight-errant Don Quixote de la Mancha and his faithful squire Sancho Panza in 17th century Spain. Published in two volumes a decade apart, Don Quixote is the most influential work of literature to emerge from the Spanish Golden Age and perhaps the entire Spanish literary canon. As a founding work of modern Western literature, it regularly appears at or near the top of lists of the greatest works of fiction ever published and is the best-selling non-religious, non-political work of fiction of all time. Bob Grant as Don Quixote and Bernard Cribbins is Sancho in this enjoyable caper. Don Quixote dons his rusty armour, mounts his broken down horse and sets off with Sancho Panza, his faithful squire, to put the world to rights. The classic adventure published in 1605, Bob Grant as Don Quixote and Bernard Cribbins is Sancho in this enjoyable caper. Dramatised by John Arden Directed by Alfred Bradley First broadcast in 1980 Don Quixote has become so entranced by reading chivalric romances that he determines to become a knight-errant himself. In the company of his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, his exploits blossom in all sorts of wonderful ways. While Quixote's fancy often leads him astray—he tilts at windmills, imagining them to be giants—Sancho acquires cunning and a certain sagacity. Sane madman and wise fool, they roam the world together, and together they have haunted readers' imaginations for nearly four hundred years. With its experimental form and literary playfulness, Don Quixote has been generally recognized as the first modern novel. The book has been enormously influential on a host of writers, from Fielding and Sterne to Flaubert, Dickens, Melville, and Faulkner, who reread it once a year, "just as some people read the Bible." [Goodreads]

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.