Don Quijote face to face with reality. A Statistical Interpretation

Work written by José Aranda Aznar

Cover of the publication

One of the contributions of the National Statistics Institute to the celebrating of the 4th Centenary of the publication of the First Part of Don Quixote, via this book, written by José Aranda Aznar, with a foreword by Rosa Cañellas, and designs and illustrations by José Alcalá, all of whom work at the INE.

With the purpose of appreciating the degree to which Cervantes' novel was true to the reality of the time, statistical and documentary data has been compiled for Spain at the end of the 16th century. In addition, a statistical reading has been made of Don Quixote, extracting information supplied by Cervantes regarding different topics, such as demographics, social classes, economics, health, education and justice.

From the contrast between the objective data and the information gleaned from the novel, broad conclusions may be drawn regarding the degree of social commitment of Cervantes, however much he was conditioned to express himself with subtlety, and even leave specific topics unspoken, issues also referred to in this book, written in such a way as to popularise the subject of statistics, thus making it accessible to a non-expert audience.

  • Format:  Print
  • Number of pages: 320
  • Publication date: 15-11-05
  • Price (including VAT):  23.02 €