Miguel de Cervantes · 1605 · overland

Cervantes' two-part masterwork of 1605 and 1615, often called the first modern novel. An aging Spanish gentleman, his brains dried up by too many tales of chivalry, dubs himself the knight-errant Don Quixote, recruits the farmer Sancho Panza as his squire, and rides out across the plains of La Mancha to revive knighthood, charging windmills he takes for giants and inns he takes for castles, until reality at last catches up with him.

1. 1
   The Village

   An aging gentleman of La Mancha, his wits dried up by chivalric romances, dubs himself Don Quixote and rides out to revive knighthood.

2. 2
   The Windmills

   He charges a row of windmills, certain they are monstrous giants, and is flung from his horse for his trouble.

3. 3
   Sierra Morena

   Penance in the wild mountains, where he runs half-mad in deliberate imitation of the heroes of his books.

4. 4
   El Toboso

   The quest for his peerless lady Dulcinea, a farm girl he has scarcely ever met.

5. 5
   Barcelona

   At last to the sea at Barcelona, where the Knight of the White Moon overthrows him and forbids him his knighthood.

6. 6
   The Village

   Home at last, his wits and his right name restored, to die as plain Alonso Quixano the Good.