Cervantes and 'La Mancha'

Today is believed to be the birthday of the great Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote. He was baptized on October 9, 1547 in the village of Alcalá de Henares, north of Madrid, and while the exact date of his birth is unrecorded, September 29 is the feast day of Saint Michael the Archangel. In those days it was customary for the Spanish to name a child for the feast day of his birth.
Cervantes’ masterpiece, The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, published in two volumes in 1605 and 1615, gave birth to the modern novel. Gustave Flaubert once said, “I can trace all my origins back to the book I knew by heart before knowing how to read: Don Quixote.” It’s the story of a middle-aged landowner who becomes so absorbed in romantic tales of chivalry that he believes them to be true. In full flight from reason, Quixote enlists Sancho Panza to be his “squire” and sets out on a heroic quest to restore the age of chivalry. The story inspired a new adjective, “quixotic,” to describe the extravagantly idealistic....posted at Open Culture (really).