The story follows the adventures of Don Quixote, who decides to set out to revive chivalry, undo wrongs, and bring justice to the world. He recruits a farmer, Sancho Panza, as his squire and imagines that he is living out a knightly story.

"Diana de Armas Wilson's introductory study captures the true essence of why Cervantes's novel has become a valuable piece of our shared cultural heritage. Humour, satire, and the religious and political conflicts that plagued the era all form part of Cervantes's great vision, and Wilson's study provides thorough analysis of why we still want to read the adventures of his would-be knight errant and his loyal squire over four centuries later." --AARON KAHN, University of Sussex

"A new translation by Burton Raffel"--Cover.