Don Quijote Ch. I

"En un lugar de La Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme..."

And thus it begins. "Some place in La Mancha, whose name I do not wish to recall..."

It's actually one of the greatest opening lines of all time in my book. It's not that the author doesn't know the name of the place. He just doesn't want to tell us. Makes you kind of want to punch him in the face.

He goes on to not tell us the age of the protagonist, nor the epoch in which the story is said to have occurred, nor the name of the protagonist. "But his name is Don Quijote!" I hear you say. WRONG! Don Quijote is the name he gave himself. Cervantes tells us that his name was either Quijada or Quesada, or even Quejana before he baptized himself Don Quijote. He also tells us that there are multiple authors to the story but declines to tell us who they are or how their stories differ.

Basically, when it comes to Don Quijote, we know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

In such a completely undefined word as the world of Don Quijote, Cervantes helps us to question our ability to know the truth.

But he did that in the Prologue, too.