“The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quijote of La Mancha” (Spanish: El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha) is a novel by the Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547–1616) about the adventures of the hero of the same name. It was published in two volumes: the first came out in 1605, the second in 1615. The novel was conceived as a parody of chivalric romances. Plot: an impoverished nobleman from La Mancha, the middle-aged Alonso Quijano, having gone crazy from reading knightly novels around the clock and lack of fresh air, wanted to become a knight errant. He takes a new name for himself – Don Quixote (in early Russian translations the variant Don Quixote was found). Don Quixote is naive and generous, is convinced that the knights lived solely to help the weak and disadvantaged, and dreams of repeating the exploits of literary heroes, but ends up in ridiculous adventures.