I dont know anything about medieval and pre romantic (besides philosphy and the major titles) literature.I haven't read Don Quixote yet but I know that it mocks tales about heroes and knights and princesses. Which are those knight tales besides Morte d Arthur, Niebelungenlied, El Cid, Roland?And also what novels and poetry were written in the renaissance, illuminism and baroque periods, besides the ones that everyone knows about.I ask because I have observed that people forget about what was considered the standard back then and only remember either the creme or the odd ones like Rabelais.For example in a lot of 19th century books I keep hearing about this Lovelace guy and Pamela by Samuel Richardson and a lot of other forgotten novles, which belong to the so called "exoticism" or "travel books" genre.People complain that we have lost a lot of ancient lit but the exact same thing is happening with pre romatic lit.>inb4 those books are shitIf people enjoyed them back then, they have to be at least a little good.
There are more minor Arthurian books like The Quest of The Holy Grail, The Death of King Arthur, etcAlso parzival
Here.https://www.livredepoche.com/collections/lettres-gothiques.It's a decidedly French slant to the middle age, but honestly how does France not define the middle ages?If your brain isn't big enough to read French, then I'm sure it's big enough to figure out what the English translations of these titles are.
>>21804989Start with the greeks
>>21804989Orlando Furioso
You should read a history of the novel, and more broadly a history or a few histories of medieval, renaissance, and early modern literature. You don't have to remember everything, but getting a general sense of the lay of the land will help tremendously in the long run because you are 100% correct, people speak in every vague notions like "then Cervantes came along and made fun of the medieval romance." Despite the fact that this is after a century of Renaissance classicism and Platonism, people reading Lucretius and Apuleius and all kinds of crazy shit. None of these eras are monolithic or "simple." The Middle Ages weren't impoverished in terms of literature or "pop" culture.
>>21804989Orlando Furioso, Amadis de Gaula
