Don Quixote (English translation) Add a review

Don Quixote is a novel by Miguel de Cervantes, written in Early Modern Spanish and published in two parts in 1605 and 1615. It is considered a founding work of Western literature and the first modern novel. It is also one of the most-translated books in the world and one of the best-selling books in history.

The plot revolves around the adventures of a member of the lowest nobility, a hidalgo from La Mancha named Alonso Quijano, who reads so many chivalric romances that he decides to become a knight-errant (caballero andante) to revive chivalry and serve his nation, under the name Don Quixote de la Mancha. He recruits as his squire a simple farm labourer, Sancho Panza, who brings an earthy wit to Don Quixote's lofty rhetoric. In the first part of the book, Don Quixote does not see the world for what it is and prefers to imagine that he is living out a knightly story meant for the annals of all time. As Salvador de Madariaga pointed out in his Guía del lector del Quijote (1972 [1926]), opposing Quixotization with Sanchification, "Sancho's spirit ascends from reality to illusion" while Don Quixote's does the opposite.

The book had a major influence on the literary community, being directly referenced in works of 19th‑century French literature such as Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers (1844) and Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac (1897). Even the word quixotic ('impractically idealistic') became part of language. Mark Twain referred to Don Quixote as having "swept the world's admiration for the mediaeval chivalry-silliness out of existence". It has been described by some as the greatest work ever written.