An old man reads too many romances and goes mad, believing himself a knight errant. With his squire Sancho Panza, he tilts at windmills, mistakes inns for castles, and insists on nobility in a world that mocks it. Cervantes published the first part in 1605, the second in 1615, and invented the modern novel. The book is funny, sad, and inexhaustible; each generation finds its own reflection. Don Quixote's madness is also his greatness, and the novel refuses to choose between them.