Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. Short summary

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Hidalgo Don Quixote, fascinated by chivalrous novels, embarks on a journey with the squire Sancho Panza. Quixote performs a host of «feats» and exposes himself to ridicule.

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Don Quixote, an impoverished nobleman, was passionate about chivalrous romances. Finding his age rude and mercantile, he himself decided to perform chivalrous feats in the glory of the fictitious Dulcinea of Toboso. The barber and the curé tried to dissuade him, but the knight was adamant.

The hidalgo took his faithful squire Sancho Panza on his journey. Don Quixote performed many «feats. He fought windmills, taking them for giants. He threw himself into a herd of rams to take part in the «battle,» for which he was stoned by the shepherds.

Don Quixote freed the outlaws, and they beat him and his squire. Hidalgo also made the peasant swear that he would pay the boy for his labour, but as soon as Don Quixote withdrew the peasant «paid his debt» to the boy with blows from his whip.

When Don Quixote, who had thus become famous, was invited to the Duke’s palace, he realized that everyone was laughing at him. He signed away all his possessions to his niece on the condition that she would not marry a traveling knight.