Don Quixote

Don Quixote tells the story of an aging nobleman, whose preoccupation with chivalric romances deludes him into reviving the tradition and setting out on knightly errands, accompanied by his squire Sancho, previously a farm labourer. His bumbling misadventures and persistent disconnect from reality lie at the heart of the plot, sprinkled with moments of unexpected lucidity. Miffed by the chivalric genre and excessive romances, Cervantes had intended his work as a parodic short story, but as he began to write, his outpourings lengthened into a fictitious account of sixteenth-century Spain, resulting in this much longer format. This literary innovation is foundational to the modern novel.