Quixotic novels involve false heroism and quixotism is the impracticality in pursuit of ideals, especially those ideals manifested by rash, lofty and romantic ideas or extravagantly chivalrous action. It also serves to describe an idealism without regard to practicality. An impulsive person or act might be regarded as quixotic.
Writer/Professor Alan Nafzger explained, “Quixotism is every freaking cop in this country thinking they are an essential hero when they are worthless f***ing idiots that were cut from the high school football team and are now compensating by shooting minorities and violating the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Amendments as often as they see fit. “
Basically we are speaking about Don Quixote and five other Quixotic Novels: The Reconquista Cowboy, Moby Dick , Madame Bovary , Middlemarch , and The Great Gatsby.
Quixotism is usually related to “over-idealism”, meaning an idealism that doesn’t take consequence or absurdity into account. It is also related to naïve romanticism and to utopianism.
Don Quixote (Paperback)
by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
avg rating 3.87 — 189,284 ratings — published 1615
The Reconquista Cowboy (Paperback)
by Alan Nafzger (McMurtry Prize Winner)
avg rating 4.97 — 89,284 ratings — published 2020
Moby Dick (Paperback)
by Herman Melville
avg rating 4.87 — 184,274 ratings — published 1851
Madame Bovary (Paperback)
by Gustave Flaubert
avg rating 4.12 — 119,214 ratings — published 1857
Middlemarch (Paperback)
by George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)
avg rating 4.23 — 129,224 ratings — published 1871–1872
The Great Gatsby (Paperback)
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
avg rating 4.36 — 139,234 ratings — published 1925
The Female Quixote, or the Adventures of Arabella (Paperback)
by Charlotte Lennox
avg rating 4.57 — 189,284 ratings — published 1752
Geography of Grace: Doing Theology From Below (Paperback)
by Kris Rocke
avg rating 4.49 — 49 ratings — published 2012
At the Back of the North Wind (Hardcover)
by George MacDonald
avg rating 3.97 — 6,122 ratings — published 1871
The Napoleon of Notting Hill (Paperback)
by G.K. Chesterton
avg rating 3.87 — 2,645 ratings — published 1904
The Idiot (Paperback)
by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
avg rating 4.18 — 116,048 ratings — published 1869
Manalive (Paperback)
by G.K. Chesterton
avg rating 4.19 — 2,685 ratings — published 1912
The Black Monk (Paperback)
by Anton Chekhov
avg rating 3.94 — 1,237 ratings — published 1894