The fame of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza became known to the work in which they appear. In discussing itself as it goes along, the work examines the question of their fame, and in the second of its two parts it even takes avoiding action in respect of its own apocryha. Their fame has lasted from that day - the first years of the 17th century - to this. Quixote, his squire, his adventures and enchanters, still matter; they are one of the legends of the romantic modern world.

LRB 20 February 1986 | PDF Download