Don Quijote
by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
About this book
By Miguel de Cervantes, published in two parts in 1605 and 1615. Alonso Quijano, a middle-aged gentleman from La Mancha, reads so many chivalric romances that he resolves to become a knight-errant under the name Don Quixote. With the farm labourer Sancho Panza as his squire, he sets out in search of adventures in which windmills look like giants and roadside inns like castles. Moving between broad comedy and moments of real insight, the novel plays idealism against reality and is often called the first modern novel.