don quixote

Cervantes' greatest work, Don Quixote, is a unique book of multiple dimensions. From the moment of its appearance it has amused readers or caused them to think, and its influence has extended in literature not only to works of secondary value but also to those which have universal importance. Don Quixote is a country gentleman, an enthusiastic visionary crazed by his reading of romances of chivalry, who rides forth to defend the oppressed and to …

…are outstanding. Also worth mentioning is the verse Voyage to Parnassus (1614), in which almost all of the Spanish writers of the period are lauded, and Persiles y Sigismunda, published posthumously in 1617. In this last-named work the author returns to the theme of the Byzantine novel and relates the ideal love and unbelievable vicissitudes of a couple who, starting from the Arctic regions, arrive in Rome, where they find a happy ending for their complicated adventures.