Don Quixote

In Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra offers a fiction first published in 1605-15. A Spanish novel published in two parts in 1605 and 1615. Considered the first modern novel, it follows Alonso Quijano, a man who reads so many chivalric romances that he loses his mind and reinvents himself as the knight-errant Don Quixote. Accompanied by his earthy squire Sancho Panza, he embarks on misguided adventures, mistaking windmills for giants and inns for castles, determined to revive chivalry in a world that has moved on. By returning to Knights and knighthood -- Spain, Picaresque literature, and Romances, the work links personal experience with wider social, moral, or imaginative concerns. The book’s distinctive character comes from a character-centered narrative style that rewards attention to voice, structure, and perspective. At roughly 426,870 words with a difficult reading profile, it offers a reading commitment that is easy to judge before beginning while still leaving room for close attention. Beyond its immediate story or argument, the book matters for its capacity to make unfamiliar lives and difficult choices emotionally legible. It remains worth reading for the precision with which it turns Knights and knighthood -- Spain and Picaresque literature into a sustained literary experience.