I read Don Quixote as a teen, in Spanish, and reading this now makes me think I very definitely read an abridged version! It was one of the novels behind René

I read Don Quixote as a teen, in Spanish, and reading this now makes me think I very definitely read an abridged version! It was one of the novels behind René Girard's early development of his theory of mimetic desire+, in Deceit, Desire and the Novel ([0] is a review). I'm fascinated that OP sees the book as offering subtle life advice, while Girard sees it as an analysis of an aspect of human nature we all share. +as made famous by Peter Thiel... but there's much more to the theory than just a paradigm to build social media on. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/feb/08/theory-mimetic-desire https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/feb/08/theo...