A Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, Don Quixote is the most influential work of literature from the Spanish Golden Age.
Measured as an idealist, he has been a military man and seen terrible things. He learns that the world is generally harsh and unforgiving.
The message is of hope and chivalry. To Dream, the Impossible Dream is undoubtedly the best known and represents the ideals of the gentleman as well as the knight.
To fight with his last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable star, are idealistic and ultimately honorable words, as is his mission.
Miguel de Cervantes, aging and an utter failure as playwright, poet and tax collector, has been thrown into a dungeon in Seville to await trial by the Inquisition for an offense against the Church. Cervantes is seeking to save the manuscript proposes his defense in the form of a play.
During their travels, the protagonists meet innkeepers, prostitutes, goat-herders, soldiers, priests, escaped convicts, and scorned lovers.
The aforementioned characters sometimes tell tales that incorporate events from the real world, like the conquest of the Kingdom of Maynila or battles in the Eighty Years' War page needed] Their encounters are magnified by Don Quixote's imagination into chivalrous quests. Don Quixote's tendency to intervene violently in matters irrelevant to himself, and his habit of not paying debts, result in privations, injuries, and humiliations with Sancho often the victim. Finally, Don Quixote is persuaded to return to his home village. The narrator hints that there was a third quest, but says that records of it have been lost.