Don Quixote: The Original Unabridged and Complete Edition (Miguel de Cervantes Classics)

Don Quixote is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. It was originally
published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615. Considered a founding work of
Western literature, it is often labelled as the first modern novel and one of
the greatest works ever written. Don Quixote is also one of the most-
translated books in the world and one of the best-selling novels of all time.
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 loses his mind and 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 a unique, 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. However, as Salvador de Madariaga pointed out in his Guía
del lector del Quijote (1972 [1926]), referring to "the Sanchification of Don
Quixote and the Quixotization of Sancho", as "Sancho's spirit ascends from
reality to illusion, Don Quixote's declines from illusion to reality".