Inventing the Romantic Don Quixote in France Jansenists, Rousseau, and British Quixotism

Cervantes’ now mythical character of Don Quixote beganas a far different figure than the altruistic righter of wrongs we know today. The transformation from mad highway robber to secular saint took place in the Romantic Era, but how and where it began has just begun to be understood. Germany and England played major roles, but, contrary to earlier literary historians, Pascal, Racine, Rousseau and the Jansenists scooped Henry and Sarah Fielding. Jansenism, a persecuted puritanical and intellectual movement linked to Pascal, identified itself with Don Quixote’s virtues, excused his vices, and wrote a game-changing sequel mediated by the transformative powers of a sorcerer from Commedia dell’Arte. As an early Romantic, Rousseau was attracted to the hero’s fertile imagination and tender love for Dulcinea, foregrounding the would-be knight’s quest in a play and his best-selling novel, Julie. Sarah Fielding reacted similarly, basing her utopian novel David Simple on the Jansenist concept of quixotic trust in others. Colahan here reproduces and explains for the first time the extremely rare original illustrations of the French sequel to Cervantes’ novel, and documents the fortunes in French culture of the magician at the heart of the Romantic Quixote.

Author’s foreword Synopsis Introduction Chapter One: Hagiography and the religious side of Don Quixote’s parodic journey Cervantes’ use of saints’ lives St. Thomas of Villanueva Traits and adventures of Don Quixote and Sancho running parallel to those of Brother Thomas. Chapter Two: The Jansenist milieu The Filleau brothers and Jansenism Jansenist teachings Filleau de la Chaise’s essay on Pascal’s Pensées Chapter Three: Don Quixote’s rise toward moral exemplarity A Jansenist tone Protestant affinities Dulcinea and faith Chapter Four: Don Quixote as high moral achiever Transforming Don Quixote and Sancho Don Quixote doing good in the world, mostly Pride goes before a fall Chapter Five: Sancho as backsliding social climber Toward the utopia of fraternity and equality Increasing day by (every other) day in wisdom and strength Chapter Six: Reason, trust, and which way lies happiness? Reason Parafaragaramus and confusing choices Chapter Seven: Magicians in Commedia dell’Arte and the Quixote sequel "The Fake Necromancer" Practical jokers "Mother Goose" and "The Barrel" The magician as director of tragi-comedy Chapter Eight: Rousseau’s recasting of Parafaragaramus Trickery versus tenderness Taking courage through trust Justice versus sadism in society Chapter Nine: Magician Overboard Downstream Benevolent and effective All-knowing denouncer of misdeeds Active pursuer of delinquents Thief of happiness Stage magician Object of Ridicule Magician as dangerous scientist harming nature Chapter Ten: The British Don Quixote: good-humored laughter and utopias Sarah Fielding on selfless friendship and Henry Brooke on Don Quixote’s humanitarianism The split English reaction to Don Quixote’s ‘Enthusiasm’ Rousseau’s impact Coleridge and Don Quixote through the lens of German philosophy Chapter Eleven: Rousseau’s Julie - reliving Don Quixote’s failed quest Summary and Take-away Works Cited Index

Clark Colahan is Anderson Professor of Humanities, Emeritus, at Whitman College, USA. He is the author of several books and numerous articles on Spanish and French literature of the Early Modern period and the Enlightenment. He is the author of The Visions of Sor María de Agreda: Writing Knowledge and Power, the co-editor of Spanish Humanism on the Verge of the Picaresque, and the co-author of the English translation of Cervantes’ last novel, The Trials of Persiles and Sigismunda.