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The first part of the book deals with Quixote traveling through the land as a knight on horseback mixing up inns for castles, strangers for kings or knights, and a random woman as his "lady" whom he names Dulcina del Toroso. It's a series of hapless adventures where one man's sense of delusion provides anxious moments for a few, concern for others, and great entertainment for most of the characters.
It's very hard not to like and even grudgingly admire Don Quixote. He is something of an aspiration for all of us dreamers and imaginative souls. Here is a man who believes in good, in what is noble and decent, no matter how high the cost.
He is one of the great tragicomic inventions in modern literature, the subject of a series of drawings by Picasso and of a popular musical comedy called "The Man of La Mancha" with it's theme song "The Impossible Dream" which is so well known to most of us.
In 2002, leading authors named 17th-Century Spanish story Don Quixote as the best work of fiction ever written, ahead of works by Shakespeare, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.
The romantic satire, won 50% more votes than any other book in a poll of some of the world's most acclaimed writers.
From Don Quixote comes the word "quixote", meaning extravagantly chivalrous or romantic, visionary to the point of being impractical or unpredictable.
For a more detailed summary of the story, go HERE