Meditations on Quixote

by José Ortega y Gasset and trs.) Gasset, José Ortega y (Evelyn Rugg and Diego Marín

Book Overview

First published in 1914, Meditations on Quixote was Ortega's first book. It has immensely grown in value with time, and since the 1930's, when Ortega himself began to refer back to it in his later writings, it has become more and more important among students of his philosophy as a key to fuller understanding of his work. It may be said to represent the core of Ortega's thought, especially in regard to art and literature.

Only as a point...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393001253
• ISBN13: 9780393001259
• Release Date: November 1963
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 196 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

The Idealized Windmill

A mucho good book; filled with a sharp, sensitive, wisdom that is constantly searching for the light on the surface, through the depths of the forgotten and ignored....rare like all great things.

Insightful Observations

Meditations on Quixote is the first major work Jose Ortega y Gasset published in Spain; as such, the reader will stumble across several infant notions that were later subjected to major philosophical treatments by Ortega. Naturally, therefore, this book is often passed over and dismissed. However, I believe it holds within its pages a very mature, coherent argument. It should be noted that Don Quixote is not actually the central focus of these meditations. Rather, Ortega only delves into Cervantes's great novel during the second half of the book (the "first" meditation), using that knight of rueful countenance to clarify his analysis. I will not attempt to explain the philosophy presented in this book, as I feel there is a reason it takes hundreds of pages to express these concepts. It is such with all philosophy; think of it as a food - I can compress all the contents of a five-star dinner into a dense pill and give that to you, but it would not serve justice to the original pieces. Having said that, I can certainly relay (as another reviewer has) the famous expression "I am myself and my circumstance." Ortega puts significance into what this "circumstance" is composed of, mentally dividing the material things in life and their deeper meaning, explaining that this deeper meaning is just as real as the material surface. He then leads into the concept of man as a hero via his own will ("the will to be oneself is heroism"), focusing on Don Quixote, and modern literature in general (as opposed the ideal epics of old), as examples. Julián Marías makes interesting notes throughout. Recommended!