Don Quixote
1605 and 1615 novel by Miguel de Cervantes
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]), referring to "the Sanchification of Don Quixote and the Quixotization of Sancho", "Sancho's spirit ascends from reality to illusion, Don Quixote's declines from illusion to reality".
The book had a major influence on the literary community, as evidenced by direct references in Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers (1844), and Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac (1897) as well as the word quixotic. Mark Twain referred to the book 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.
The public source identifies “Don Quixote” as 1605 and 1615 novel by Miguel de Cervantes. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Quixote, novel and Miguel.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q480. VIAF identifies the subject as 184295284. The Library of Congress control number is n81032847. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 3 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1605, 1615, 1972 and 1926.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Don Quixote” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.