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Don Quixote: A Play in Three Acts, by Victorien Sardou (Paperback)

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1434457370
Don Quixote: A Play in Three Acts, by Victorien Sardou (Paperback)
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In this dramatic version of Miguel de Cervantes's classic novel, Don Quixote is driven mad by an overindulgence in fantastic romances, puts on the old family armor, grabs his faithful servant, Sancho Panza, and goes a-tilting at windmills across the Spanish landscape.
  • 5
    Sardou's Well-Rounded Quixote

    Posted by Phyllis Ann Karr on Dec 26th 2017

    I found this a thoroughly satisfying read, as well as a true page-turner. (Am very glad I enjoy reading plays.) I could wish for an afterword by Frank Morlock explaining how far his adaptations extend: how much of the volume in hand is a pure translation of Sardou's work, and how much we owe to the translator. All other quibbles -- and I recognize that some could be adduced, including the way so many characters turn out to be previously acquainted or even related to one another -- I cheerfully accept on the principle of willing suspension of disbelief for the sake of a good story.
    The dramatist has worked in both the famous Windmill episode and the knightly accolade in an inn-yard by the inn's owner, as well as plenty of colorful detail. The story of Cardenio, Don Fernando, Dorothea, and Lucinda -- an incidental (if long) addition to Part I of Cervantes' novel -- becomes at least the secondary if not the principal part of this play, its characters being woven deftly into Don Quixote's adventures. Cervantes made a point that on all matters not directly touching his knight-errant mania, Quixote talked and behaved very sensibly and even wisely. That fits the Quixote of Sardou's play, who when not being defeated in trials of arms, finally saves the day with his wisdom. After plowing through Avellaneda's spurious Part II, in which Quixote and Panza come off as mere ridiculous caricatures of Cervantes' creations, I keenly appreciate their portraiture in Sardou's play, which is as sympathetic as in Man of La Mancha.
    I would recommend this very highly to all Quixote fans, to everyone who enjoys reading plays, and (with the small reservation mentioned above) to anyone interested in the work of the Victorian dramatist who gave us the foundation for Puccini's Tosca. Staging Sardou's Don Quixote today might present problems for a high-school and community theater group; but for armchair reading, it's wonderful.