After the Bible, it’s the most translated book in the world. It’s also called the first modern novel. Don Quixote is the work of a Spaniard who spent five years as a captive in Algiers—and that experience may have been one of the best things that happened to world literature. We'll hear about the world that shaped Miguel de Cervantes and his novel. Is the book a comedy or a tragedy? What makes it so contemporary after four hundred years? And what did Cervantes know about his exact contemporary, William Shakespeare?