Magic Realism in Cervantes

"Magic" Realism in Cervantes: Don Quixote as Seen Through Tom Sawyer and The Idiot explores the enduring impact of Cervantes' Don Quixote through the works of Mark Twain and Fyodor Dostoevsky. The essay draws on the author's conversations with Ernest Hemingway about the significance of Mark Twain, highlighting parallels between Twain's protagonists and Cervantes' iconic knight-errant. The thesis asserts that Twain's Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, as well as Dostoevsky's The Idiot, extend Cervantes’ world rather than merely comment on it. These works, through characters like a child and an “idiot,” delve into themes of sincerity, play, and the human condition. The essay suggests that Don Quixote’s actions—whether deeply earnest or whimsically playful—reflect a profound engagement with life, not mockery, as earlier interpretations have suggested.

Building on Ortega y Gasset’s philosophical inquiries about the ambiguity of Don Quixote, the study proposes a fresh perspective by examining the "descendants" of Cervantes' creation in Twain and Dostoevsky. It posits that Cervantes' masterpiece is a "game of life," blending the serious with the playful, and transcending traditional narrative boundaries. By viewing Don Quixote through the lens of Twain's childlike adventurers and Dostoevsky's tragic hero, the essay uncovers a deeper understanding of Cervantes’ intentions, affirming that his work is less a satire and more a celebration of the paradoxes of human existence—an interplay of earnestness and imagination, where life itself becomes both dream and play.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1970.