Don Quixote

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Don Quixote is one of the great masterpieces of world literature, and a rollicking, profoundly instructive adventure story in the bargain. The first great European novel, its theme of the superannuated knight setting out on his rickety horse to put a wicked world to rights, is as touching and timely today as ever it has been. Along the rocky road that leads to the truth about everything, the deluded don and his reluctant squire Sancho Panza reveal themselves as the best comic duo of them all. As brightly as it first did in 1605, Cervantes' immortal tale shines across the centuries to remind us that good intentions should always pave the way, and never mind the consequences.

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About the author (2011)

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was born in Alcala de Henares, Spain, in 1547. In 1585, a few months after his marriage to Catalina de Salazar, he published his first major work as an author, the pastoral novel La Galatea which was poorly received. Cervantes became a tax collector in Granada in 1594, but was imprisoned in 1597 due to money problems with the government. Folklore maintains that while in prison, he wrote his most famous novel, Don Quixote, which was an immediate success upon publication in 1605. After several years of writing short novels and plays, Cervantes was spurred to write the sequel to Don Quixote in 1615 when an unauthorized sequel appeared to great acclaim. Though Cervantes' sequel was rushed and flawed, Don Quixote remains a powerful symbol that has endured to present times in many forms. Cervantes died on April 22, 1616, at the age of 69.

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