Miguel de Cervantes

In 1605 the aging Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, who had known failure and grave injury as a solider, tax collector, poet, and playwright, published the first truly modern novel, "a story filled with thoughts that never occurred to anyone else." Don Quixote, the picaresque tale of a romantic gentleman unhinged by his immersion in tales of chivalry, was disdained by Cervantes's literary betters, but it delighted common readers--as it has continued to do for more than 300 years. At once poetic and colloquial, dryly comic and unaffectedly moving, profound and bracingly down to earth, Cervantes's masterpiece demands repeated readings because it is one of those rare books that not only engages but informs the heart.