The Trials of Persiles and Sigismunda

Miguel de Cervantes · 1547–1616 · Spain

Originally Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda (Spanish)

Why it matters

Finished days before his death and published posthumously: two disguised royals survive shipwrecks, pirates, and false accusations across a fantastical northern Europe. Cervantes's late bid at the high Byzantine romance he'd spent Don Quixote gently mocking.

At a glance

Sprawling, digressive adventure plot in the ornate register of Byzantine romance.