Don Quixote Chapter-a-Day Read-along Day 1: Prologue and Poetry

Miguel de Cervantes

Miguel de Cervantes

Welcome to the Prologue to Don Quixote, the beginning of the 2019 Chapter-a-Day Read-along! In order to read exactly 365 chapters this year, I am counting the prologue to Part 1 as a chapter (and will do so again at the beginning of Part 2), so we won’t start the actual story until tomorrow, January 2.

Though the story hasn’t begun yet, you can already get a sense of Cervantes’ humor as he worries about how his book will be received and frets that it will not contain enough quotations or citations to impress the public.

Cervantes also includes some poetry in honor of the great knight Don Quixote. These fictitious poems are attributed to some of the most famous characters from the literature of chivalry: Amadis of Gaul, Don Belianís, Lady Oriana, Gandalín, etc. These are characters from the novels Don Quioxte loves to read. In other words, fictional heroes are writing poems in honor of Cervantes’ fictional hero. It would be as if William Goldman had begun The Princess Bride with poetry written by Aragorn, Legolas, or Boromir in honor of Wesley, Inigo Montoya, or Fezzik.

Tomorrow we meet Don Quixote himself, and with school starting soon I anticipate not being able to write too many posts about the book. But I’ll be posting a quote each day on Twitter and Facebook using the hashtag #quixotereadalong. I encourage you to do the same if you so desire.

To stay on track with the chapter-a-day schedule, be sure to download the Chapter a Day Reading Schedule. Here’s the schedule for the month of January:

1/1/2018 Prologue to Part I
1/2/2018 Chapter 1
1/3/2018 Chapter 2
1/4/2018 Chapter 3
1/5/2018 Chapter 4
1/6/2018 Chapter 5
1/7/2018 Chapter 6
1/8/2018 Chapter 7
1/9/2018 Chapter 8
1/10/2018 Chapter 9
1/11/2018 Chapter 10
1/12/2018 Chapter 11
1/13/2018 Chapter 12
1/14/2018 Chapter 13
1/15/2018 Chapter 14
1/16/2018 Chapter 15
1/17/2018 Chapter 16
1/18/2018 Chapter 17
1/19/2018 Chapter 18
1/20/2018 Chapter 19
1/21/2018 Chapter 20
1/22/2018 Chapter 21
1/23/2018 Chapter 22
1/24/2018 Chapter 23
1/25/2018 Chapter 24
1/26/2018 Chapter 25
1/27/2018 Chapter 26
1/28/2018 Chapter 27
1/29/2018 Chapter 28
1/30/2018 Chapter 29
1/31/2018 Chapter 30

Deacon Nick

Nick Senger is a husband, a father of four, a Roman Catholic deacon and a Catholic school principal. He taught junior high literature and writing for over 25 years, and has been a Catholic school educator since 1990. In 2001 he was named a Distinguished Teacher of the Year by the National Catholic Education Association.

6 Responses

  1. Neveen Badr says:

    I have jumped and the reading took me to chapter 3, yet I might read the author’s prologue again.

  2. Risa says:

    I find, from the prologue, I like Cervantes’ sense of humour. The poems have whetted my curiosity further, and I am eager to begin reading about the man from La Mancha today! I had wanted to begin chapter 1 yesterday, but I told myself, I’m doing this a chapter a day. Let’s see how long I last… heh.

    I am neither on Twitter nor on Facebook, but I guess I’ll be posting my updates in the comments of whatever your latest post on Don Quixote is, and on my blog.

    All the best with your new school year!

  3. Brona says:

    Thanks for helping me past the first hurdle Nick 🙂
    http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com/2019/01/musings-of-idle-reader.html

  4. Silvia says:

    Hi Nick, nice to meet you. I am having a DQ read along too, and we have some who are reading along with both of us. I am so excited to do this too, and happy for so many interested in this beloved classic. I enjoyed the example you gave comparing it to The Princess Bride. Cervantes is so close to us, readers, I love his invitation to talk about his book.

    • Deacon Nick says:

      Thank you for introducing yourself, Silvia! It’s so great that these read-alongs are happening at the same time. I won’t be able to write much about Don Quixote due to a busy schedule, so I will eagerly look forward to your blog posts.

  1. February 7, 2019

    […] the book fun and interesting, fills me with joy and motivation. Nick’s first post on the prologue and poetry is here. Brona, -one of you participating-, already left hers here. And with just those two, we all have an […]

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