He borrowed this name from Alonso de Quesada y Salazar, the great uncle of Catalina de Salazar y Palacios, whom Cervantes married in 1584. Near the conclusion of the second volume of Don Quixote, Cervantes reveals the real name of his hero to be Alonso Quixano (alternatively spelled “Quijano”). Cervantes named the main character in Don Quixote after his wife's uncle. It was during this time in the slammer that Cervantes is believed to have first thought up the story that would become Don Quixote. However, frequent “mathematic irregularities” landed Cervantes in the Crown Jail of Seville twice between 15. Among the varied gigs Cervantes kept in the years before his literary breakout was a job as a tax collector for the Spanish government. Young Miguel de Cervantes suffered from a plight familiar to any aspiring writer: working a day job to pay the bills. Cervantes came up with the story for Don Quixote while he was in jail. Bloom identifies the arcs of change bracing the story’s titular character and his companion Sancho Panza as the primary marker that distinguishes it as the first of its breed, and Fuentes suggested that the nuance in the dialogue and characterization is chief in separating Don Quixote from all preceding texts. Such esteemed thinkers as award-winning literary critic Harold Bloom and decorated novelist and essayist Carlos Fuentes have declared that Don Quixote is the very first true example of the modern novel. Don Quixote is considered the first modern novel. Nevertheless, there could be a few little-known facts you haven’t heard about the two-volume 17th-century masterpiece.

Even if you have never picked up a copy of Miguel de Cervantes’s novel The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha, you’re likely familiar with the story: one of delusional noblemen, portly squires, and windmill monsters.

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