Meditations on Quixote

José Ortega y Gasset

University of Illinois Press, 2000 - Literary Collections - 192 pages

"""One of the essential experiences, the greatest perhaps, is Cervantes. . . . Alas! If only we knew with certainty the secret of Cervantes' style, of his manner of approaching things, we would have found out everything.""In Meditations on Quixote, Jos Ortega y Gasset presents a powerful case for integrating literature into experience. Through a series of ""essays in intellectual love,"" Ortega explores the aim of philosophy: to carry a given fact (a person, a book, a landscape, an error, a sorrow) by the shortest route to its fullest significance. He then considers how literature, specifically Cervantes, contributes to realizing this aim.Arguing that ""we are all heroes in some measure,"" that ""heroism lies dormant everywhere as a possibility,"" and that ""the will to be oneself is heroism,"" Ortega urges us to integrate the possible into our conception of the real. He presents Quixote as a profound book, full of references and allusions to the universal meaning of life, a book that presents with maximum intensity the particular mode of human existence that is peculiarly Spanish. A call to his fellow Spaniards to join him in forging a new Spain, Ortega's Meditations on Quixote is also an invitation to his fellow humans to take up the challenge of literature, opening our minds and seeking all-embracing connections with the world and its people."

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - JBreedlove - LibraryThing

A disappointing read after Man in Crisis. One of Gasset's early works the book is a series of short essays about Spain, Quixote, Cervantes, and the novel. The book is saved by some pointed insights on what is heroism and adventure.

Contents

• TRANSLATORS NOTE: 7
• PROLOGUE FOR AMERICAN READERS JULIÁN MARÍAS: 9
• To the Reader: 31
• Preliminary Meditation: 55
• THE FOREST AJORI: 59
• DEPTH AND SURFACE: 61
• STREAMS AND ORIOLES: 64
• WORLDS BEYOND: 67
• THE RESTORATION AND ERUDITION: 70
• MEDITERRANEAN CULTURE: 74
• WHAT A CAPTAIN SAID TO GOETHE: 79
• THE PANTHER OR ON SENSISM: 82
• THINGS AND THEIR MEANING: 87
• CULTURESECURITY: 94
• LIGHT AS AN IMPERATIVE: 97
• INTEGRATION: 100
• PARABLE: 104
• CRITICISM AS PATRIOTISM: 105
• A Short Treatise on the Novel: 111
• LITERARY GENRES: 112
• EXEMPLARY NOVELS: 114
• THE EPIC: 118
• POETRY OF THE PAST: 120
• THE BARD: 124
• HELEN AND MADAME BOVARY: 126
• THE MYTH LEAVEN OF HISTORY: 128
• BOOKS OF CHIVALRY: 130
• MASTER PEDROS PUPPET SHOW: 133
• POETRY AND REALITY: 135
• REALITY LEAVEN OF THE MYTH: 138
• THE WINDMILLS: 141
• REALISTIC POETRY: 143
• MIME: 146
• THE HERO: 148
• INTERVENTION OF LYRICISM: 150
• TRAGEDY: 152
• COMEDY: 156
• TRAGICOMEDY: 160
• FLAUBERT CERVANTES DARWIN: 162
• NOTES BY JULIÁN MARÍAS: 166

Bibliographic information

• Title: Meditations on Quixote
• Author: José Ortega y Gasset
• Editor: Julián Marías
• Translated by: Evelyn Rugg, Diego Marín
• Contributor: Julián Marías
• Edition: reprint, revised
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 2000
• ISBN: 0252068955, 9780252068959
• Length: 192 pages
• Subjects: Literary Collections / Essays