According to tradition, Cervantes first conceived his comic masterpiece in jail - his avowed intent being to debunk the romances of chivalry.
From first publication, Don Quixote was a best-seller, initially taken as a knockabout account of a mad Spanish gentleman and his cowardly peasant squire, but later reinterpreted as an enlightenment text, a representation of universal human nature, a myth of a tragic hero defending man\'s nobler aspirations, a study in alienation, a spiritual autobiograp.
According to tradition, Cervantes first conceived his comic masterpiece in jail - his avowed intent being to debunk the romances of chivalry