The Defence of Quixotic Reading in El príncipe que todo lo aprendió en los cuentos

Abstract

Miguel de Cervantes’ masterpiece Don Quijote de la Mancha (1605, 1615) is a recurrent presence in children’s literature from the 18th century onwards. Together with abridged editions of the novel, it is possible to find less obvious rewritings of the quixotic myth. This is the case of El príncipe que todo lo aprendió en los libros (1909), written by Jacinto Benavente and staged at the “Teatro de los Niños” that he had founded himself. The present article claims that the rewriting of the quixotic myth performed by Benavente aims to defend children’s imagination. In particular, it explores how the prince’s taste for reading is not corrected, but praised, and how the author includes a wide range of references to fairy tales to claim the role of fiction in children’s education. Benavente’s work, then, becomes a story for both adults and children on the power of literature and its effect on the values of the readers.