Don Quixote
Miguel de Cervantes · 1547–1616 · Spain
Originally Don Quijote de la Mancha (Spanish)
Why it matters
The founding text of the modern novel: a parody of chivalric romance that discovered fiction's true subject, the gap between the stories we believe and the world we inhabit. Four centuries on, novelists still call it the book that contains all the others.
At a glance
picaresquesatireepic
Difficulty 6/10medium pace940 pagesArchaic idiom and constant parody of chivalric romance require some genre familiarity.
Deep dive
Why the funniest book ever written about reading turns genuinely sad by the end, and what its self-quoting sequel invented for the novel.
Where to go next
Miguel de Cervantes · 1585La GalateaLvl 6Slow burn
Miguel de Cervantes · 1613The Exemplary NovelsLvl 5Medium pace
Miguel de Cervantes · 1617The Trials of Persiles and SigismundaLvl 6Fast paced
Laurence Sterne · 1759The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, GentlemanLvl 9Slow burn
Jonathan Swift · 1726Gulliver's TravelsLvl 5Medium pace
Henry Fielding · 1749Tom JonesLvl 5Fast paced