Spanish engineer’s publication of Don Quixote in 17,000 tweets almost complete
Diego Buendia will complete undertaking that started as a joke when he sends the final tweet from author Miguel de Cervantes’ reputed birthplace on Friday, the 400th anniversary of his death
A retired computer engineer is marking the fourth centenary of the death of Spain’s revered author Miguel de Cervantes by publishing his best-known novel, Don Quixote, online – one Twitter message at a time.
Barcelona-based Diego Buendia, 55, said he got the idea in August 2004 “while joking how great it would be to have the classics published on Twitter”.
Twitter reaction to Buendia’s undertaking
Twitter messages are limited to 140 characters and Buendia used an algorithm to divide the novel about a delusional wanna-be knight into a total of 17,000 tweets.
He then set up Twitter account @elquijote1605 that posts 28 fragments of the novel every day, decorated with a picture of white-washed windmills, a nod to the best-known episode of the book, when Don Quixote fights windmills he imagines are giants.
