Don Quixote

Don Quixote is a novel by Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes, published in two parts in 1605 and 1615. Often cited as the first modern novel, it is one of the most translated and widely read works in the history of literature.

The story follows Alonso Quixano, an aging gentleman from La Mancha who has read so many tales of chivalric romance that he loses his grip on reality and reinvents himself as Don Quixote, a knight-errant. Accompanied by his faithful squire Sancho Panza, he sets out on a series of misguided adventures — tilting at windmills he believes to be giants, liberating prisoners he takes for oppressed innocents, and pursuing the idealized Dulcinea del Toboso.

A rich and comic exploration of idealism, madness, and the power of storytelling, Don Quixote has influenced virtually every major tradition of Western fiction and remains one of the towering achievements of world literature.