Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish writer who lived from 1547 to 1616. He had a difficult life, including a stint in the Spanish army where he fought against the Turks and Italians. In 1575, he and his brother were kidnapped by pirates and sold into slavery in Algiers. Cervantes attempted to escape three times before finally being ransomed and returned to Spain in 1580. It was only with the publication of the first volume of "Don Quixote" in 1605 that Cervantes achieved financial success and popular renown. The novel became an instant success and spawned an unauthorized sequel by a writer who used the name Avellaneda. This sequel appeared several years after the original volume, and it inspired Cervantes to hurry along his own second volume, which he published in 1615, just a year before he died.

One of the most interesting aspects of "Don Quixote" is how Cervantes drew on his own life experiences in the novel. The presence of Algerian pirates on the Spanish coast, the exile of the enemy Moors, and the disheartening battles displaying Spanish courage in the face of plain defeat all appear in the novel and are based on Cervantes's own experiences. Cervantes's biases also pervade the novel, most notably in the form of a mistrust of foreigners. However, "Don Quixote" is not simply a historical novel. Cervantes wrote the book during a time of great change in Spain, as the country struggled to maintain its dominance in Europe while also facing internal turmoil. The novel explores issues of human identity, morality, and art in this ever-shifting time.

The first volume of "Don Quixote" is a parody of the chivalric romances of Cervantes's time. Don Quixote rides out like any other knight-errant, searching for the same principles and goals and engaging in similar battles. On another level, however, the novel attempts to describe a code of honor that could serve as an example for a Spain that was confused by war and by its own technological and social successes. Cervantes applies this code of values to a world in which such values are out of date. In the second part of the novel, Cervantes provides more nuanced characters who engage in sincere and meaningful ways. He also includes social and religious commentary, criticizing the class structure in Spain, where outmoded concepts of nobility and property prevailed even as education became more widespread among the lower classes. The novel highlights how unacceptable Cervantes found these class distinctions to be. Likewise, the prevailing of Sancho and Teresa Panza’s wisdom at the end of the novel is a victory for old-fashioned goodness and wisdom in the face of a world that makes people practical but petty.