I cried bros, I cried when the Knight of the White Moon defeated the Ingenious Gentlemen Don Quixote in honorable combat

Yes but up to the point where he confided in Sancho that he wanted people to believe his story from the cave, he hadnt confided in anyone at all about any of the innerworkings of his character, so the reader could have been able to believe that he actually was insane in the way Cervantes described. It was the first time he broke his own internal "fourth wall", as they say
In that one tiny confession to Sancho, and if I remember right it was just one tiny paragraph and maybe even one single sentence, everything about the character began to come into question quite abrutply
I guess the real question is did the fictional stagings of the duke and duchess start to make him realize he was crazy? Or did realizing that he was influencing the whole world so much that it was becoming one giant roleplay, make him sad, and realize his mission had been accomplished, and he need not try so hard anymore?
I mean its incredibly symbolic and meaningful either way, and its no surprise the book is touted as the greatest fiction ever concieved even after 400 years, but its honestly an unanswerable question. Its a chicken or the egg argument. I doubt even Cervantes himself would have had an answer for it, evem if he were alive today. Hell I guess the only answer is that there is no answer, because maybe its both

recommend me a translation (into english)

Ormsby is the definitive english text, Grossman is a little more modernized, and I guess approachable
Cant go wrong either way, hell just get both

>tfw the focus goes to Cardenio's story, then Dorotea, then that book they read is the focus, and then The Moorish Captain shows up and he tells his story for three chapters, and it's all good but you just want more Quixote stuff

>tfw you realize literally every fiction concieved in the past 400 years is just a re-packaging of Don Quixote

RIP knight of the woeful countenance

Don't worry it isn't for like another 900 pages. You don't even know who the knight is, and Don Quixote gets shat on multiple times. It's part of the fun. My favorite adventure is the wagon of lions.

Motteux is fucking elegant, if you can get over the lack of quotations marks which isn't really hard because it's always established who is speaking, though some it may not be everyone's cup of tea

RUEFUL COUNTENANCE YOU HEATHEN

Grossman translated it as "Sorrowful Face"
It almost fucked up the whole thing for me but I eventually was able to overlook it, in the same way one might ignore a hideously keyed car door instead of going and getting a new paint job

> the ending when Sancho wishes to become a shepherd with BIG DON but it's too late

Literally the saddest shit ever and more than enough to reduce a respectable full grown man to wistful weeping

I know dude, I finished the book and I had to take a walk because it hit me so hard. Only Les Miserables had the same impact on me, no other books have made me cry before.