The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha

By Lila L. Flood

Don Quixote
In Dona Benta's room, Emília was leafing through the books. Her discovery of new things, like picture books, was something I appreciated about her. She could only reach the ones on the bottom shelf, though, because she was so little. She needed to climb a chair in order to get to those in the second. She licked her forehead after seeing the third and fourth ones with her eyes. They piqued her curiosity the most, for that reason. particularly large ones.
When Dona Benta and her grandkids went to visit their compadre Teodorico, the tiny pest once forced the Viscount to take a ladder there.

Transporting the ladder there was an enormous task. The Viscount was sweating because Emília was helping him, but she was helping him too much, putting all the burden on him. At last, Emília climbed the ladder that was positioned next to the bookcase.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Flood
• Release date: May 25, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224633333

Book preview

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The Search for Love

This Life and All Others

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Shadow Game: Thriller & Mystery Novel

The Perfect Crime? A Novel

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The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha

The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha

by Miguel de Cervantes (Author), and  Lila L. Flood

Table Of Contents

THE INGENIOUS GENTLEMANDON

QUIXOTE OF LA MANCHA

PER

MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA

II

Dona Benta starts reading the book

III

First adventures

IV

Terrible combat

V

Don Quixote returns home. The burning of books

SAW

First adventures with Sancho

VII

New adventures on the road. The friars

VIII

Conversations between Don Quixote and Sancho

IX

The inn with the goatherds

X

Renaissance of the Viscount

XI

Great combat with muleteers. Fight in Dom Quixote and Sancho

XII

Adventures at the inn

XIII

Fight with the rams

XIV

The adventure of the pylons

XV

Conquest of the Mambrino helmet, the most famous in the world

XVI

The adventure with the Galleries

XVII

End of penance.

XVIII

The adventure of the wine skins

XIX

What happened at the inn

XX

The return of the caged

XXI

Third departure of Don Quixote. Death car adventure

XXII

Don Quixote's Adventure with the Knight of Mirrors

XXIII

Don Quixote's great courage before the lions

XXIV

The enchanted boat.

Don Quixote meets the Duke

XXV

History of Dolorida.

The enchanted horse

XXVI

Advice from Don Quixote. Sancho takes over the island's government

XXVII

Sancho leaves the island

and what happens along the way

XXVIII

Don Quixote in Barcelona. The Knight of the White Moon

XXIX

Don Quixote's illness and death

(_END _)

––––––––

Emília discovers Don Quixote

Emília was in Dona Benta's room, looking through the books. What I liked about her was discovering new things — picture books. But as she was very small, she could only reach the ones on the bottom shelf. To reach those in the second, she had to climb a chair. And the third and fourth ones, she saw with her eyes and licked with her forehead. That's why they were the ones that interested her most. Especially huge ones.

Once the little pest made the Viscount take a ladder there — one time when Dona Benta and her grandchildren had gone to visit their compadre Teodorico.

It was a huge job to get the ladder there. The poor Viscount sweated, because Emília, although she helped him, helped him caperiously, making all the weight on his side. Finally the ladder was placed next to the bookcase, and Emília climbed it.

—  Hold on tight, Viscount — she said when she reached the middle. —

If the ladder slips and I fall, Your Excellency. pay me.

—  Have no fear, Madam Marquise. I'm here clinging to the queer's feet like a real tree root. Go up quietly.

Emilia went up. She reached the books and could read the title. It was Don Quixote de la Mancha, in two enormous and very heavy volumes. No matter what she did, she couldn't even move them from their place.

—  Viscount — said the mischievous creature, wiping the little sweat that dripped from his forehead —, it seems that these books have taken root. You won't go without a hoe. We have to uproot them like uprooting a tree. Go get a hoe.

—  If you allow me an opinion, I will say that the case is not about a hoe — but about leverage. Dona Benta has already explained that the lever is a machine designed to lift weights. With the lever, the man multiplies the strength of his arm, being able to lift stones and other very heavy things.

Emília looked at the books.

—  Good," she said. — The lever multiplies the strength of a man's arm, I know that. But does it also multiply the strength of the dolls' arms?

—  Try it — replied the Viscount. — It is by experimenting that discoveries are made. It was through experimentation that Edison discovered the phonograph.

—  Leave Edison alone and bring the lever. The Viscount brought a broomstick.

—  Are you sure that this is leverage, sir cob?

—  I guarantee it is. Try it. If you stick the end of the broomstick in that gap and give it a little force, the book will move. Try it.

The doll did the experiment. She stuck the broom handle into a gap, pressed, and the book, which seemed to have roots, moved three fingers.

—  Alive! Alive! — screamed the little devil. — It's leverage, yes, Viscount, and a legitimate one! This time I take the prose away from this weight.

And he did. So much so that the book moved to the edge of the shelf, now two fingers, now two more fingers, until. . .

Brolorotachabum!— he fell from above, dragging the ladder, Emília and the broomstick in his fall, all right on top of the poor Viscount.

The noise made Tia Nastácia come running from the kitchen.

—  Our Lady! What earthquake will that be? —she exclaimed. And upon entering the room, seeing the disaster: — Is it possible, dear God? Will the earth be shaking?

—  It was the lever — explained Emília. — The lever ripped the book from above and dropped it on top of the Viscount. . .

—  On top of the Viscount, Emília? So the poor Viscount is under this colossus?

—  Yes, it is — so flat that you don't even notice it. Evil lever.

Lifting the book, the black woman saw that the Viscount was actually underneath — but completely flat.

—  Creed! — She exclaimed. — It looks like a cake of dough that we sit on top of. Did he die?

He shook him, turned him from side to side, shouted in his ear. Anything. The Viscount did not show the slightest sign of life. He only let a little broth out of him.

—  It’s the soup of science — observed Emília. — I'll keep it in a jar. It might be of some use.

—  And now? — said the black woman, hands on her hips, with her eyes on that flatness.

—  Now — replied the doll — we leave it as it is to see how it goes. Pedrinho soon arrives and makes an arrangement. He can go take care of your stove.

Emilia was eager to see the Don Quixote figures. As if he were a heartless doll, he didn't care if the Viscount remained there in that sad state. Furthermore, she was sure that, one way or another, Pedrinho would fix it. Cob creatures have this advantage. They can be repaired, like watches, sewing machines and kettles that have holes in them. But Aunt Nastácia, always with her hands on her hips, never took her eyes off the poor little cob.

—  He arrives! — Emília screamed. — Don't get sick. Go take care of your pans — and she pushed the black woman towards the kitchen door. Then she ran back to the book. She opened it and read the words on the first page.

THE INGENIOUS GENTLEMANDON

QUIXOTE OF LA MANCHA

PER

MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA

-— Saavedra! — he exclaimed . — Why these two here, if only one has the same effect? — and, looking for a pencil, crossed out the second a.

Once the correction was made, he began leafing through the book. How beautiful! It was full of huge engravings by a certain Gustave Doré, a guy who knew how to draw very well. The first engraving represented a thin and tall man, sitting on a chair that looked like a throne, with a book in one hand and a sword raised in the other. All around, on the ground and in the air, there was everything: dragons, knights, queens, jokers and even mice. Emília carefully examined the engraving, thinking to herself that if those mice were there it was because Doré had forgotten to draw a cat.

Then he heard a noise on the balcony. Dona Benta and the boys were coming in.

—  What is this, Emília? — asked the old woman, upon finding Don Quixote sprawled on the floor. — Who brought this book down?

—  It was the lever — replied the doll. — Arts by Senhor Visconde, and that's why it was more boring than a cake that we sit on top of. And mute. It looks like he died.

Narizinho and Pedrinho ran to examine the Viscount.

Underdog! — exclaimed the girl. — Such a good Viscount, so scientific. See, Pedrinho, you can fix him.

—  I saved the broth of science — said Emília, showing a bottle of homeopathy.

Aunt Nastácia came from the kitchen to explain the disaster.

—  But how did the book fall from above? — Dona wanted to know

Benta.

—  I don't know, miss. I heard a noise. I ran and found the book in the

floor. When I lifted the book, I found a mess underneath: it was the poor Viscount. He didn't even moan. He was dead at once. . .

—  But how did the book fall from above?

—  I don't know, miss. What I saw was a ladder on the floor, the book on top of the Viscount and a broomstick. Emília tells me that it was something like that lever...

—  Hmm! Hmm! — growled Dona Benta, staring at the doll. — I understand everything. That's the lever. . .

II

Dona Benta starts reading the book

What cannot be cured is remedied. The Viscount remained leaning in a corner, and Dona Benta, on the evening of that same day, began to read to the boys the story of the ingenious nobleman from La Mancha. As the book was too big, a real mess, weighing an arroba, Pedrinho had to make a frame of boards to serve as a support. In front of that immensity, Dona Benta sat down, with the children around her.

—  This book — she said — is one of the most famous in the entire world. It was written by the great Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. . . Who crossed out the second one to Saavedra?

—  It was me — said Emília.

—  Why?

—  Because I am a personal enemy of that old common spelling that complicates people's lives with useless things. If one says it all, why two?

—  But you should respect this edition, which is rare and precious. Have whatever ideas you want, but respect other people's property. This edition was made in Portugal many years ago. It contains the work of Cervantes translated by the famous Viscount of Castilho and the Viscount of Azevedo.

—  Oh! — Emília exclaimed. — So that's why our Viscount messed with it — to learn the language of his fellow viscounts. What an abundant breed! Three just here in this little room. . .

Dona Benta continued:

—  The Viscount of Castilho was one of the greatest writers in the Portuguese language. He is considered one of the best classics, that is, one of those who wrote in the most perfect style. Anyone who wants to know Portuguese in depth should read it — and also Herculano, Camilo and others.

—  Is perfect Portuguese better than imperfect Portuguese, grandma? — asked Narizinho.

—  It's clear, my daughter. One thing, if it is perfect, is clearly better than an imperfect one. This question even sounds like Emília’s. .

—  So start — asked Pedrinho. And Dona Benta began to

to read:

—  "In a place in La Mancha, the name of which I don't want to remember,

There lived, not long ago, a nobleman, one with a lance in a coat, an ancient adarga and a racing greyhound".

—  Che! — Emília exclaimed. — If the entire book is this perfection of language, see you later! I'm going to play hide and seek with Quindim. Fitted spear, old adarga, greyhound runner. . . I don't understand these viscounties, no. . .

—  Well, I understand — said Pedrinho. — Lance in cabido means spear hanging from a cabido; a racing greyhound is a thin dog that runs and the old adarga is. . . It is. . .

—  Choked! — said Emilia. — I confess that I don't understand anything. Launch accordingly! Well, if a spear is a stick with a spear at the end, it could be spear behind the door, spear in the corner — but in the right place, wow! Fitted is for hanging things, and piece of stick we lean on, we don't hang on. You know what, my dear friends? I'm going to play hide and seek with Quindim. . .

—  My children — said Dona Benta — this work is written in a high style, rich in all the perfections and subtleties of form, which is why it has become classic. But since you still don't have the necessary culture to