An idealistic country gentleman sets out like the knights of old to search for adventure and right wrongs.

In 1605 the aging Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, who had known failure and grave injury as a soldier, tax collector, poet, and playwright, published the first truly modern novel, "a story filled with thoughts that never occurred to anyone else." Don Quixote, the picaresque tale of a romantic gentleman unhinged by his immersion in tales of chivalry, was disdained by Cervantes's literary betters, but it delighted common readers-as it has continued to...

"All the best known portions of the Gargantua and Pantagruel ... will be found here, along with others which are ordinarily overlooked."--Page 40.