Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Spain's greatest literary figure and author of what many regard as the first modern novel, was born in Alcalá de Henares, a small university town near Madrid in 1547. His father was a noble surgeon, but a poor one and the Saavedra family were constantly on the move across Spain. His father was eventually imprisoned for his debts putting much hardship on the family.

Cervantes did receive a formal education and eventually moved to Madrid to finish his education. While in Madrid, in his late teens Cervantes began writing poems, although with little recognition.
In 1569, Cervantes obtained a position with the household of an Italian nobleman and travelled to Italy. A year later, in Naples, Cervantes enlisted in the Spanish army. In 1571, he fought at the battle of Lepanto against the Turks where he was severely wounded. He lost the use of his left hand and was forced spend a considerable time recuperating from his wounds in Italy. He spent his time studying literature and philosophy.  In 1575, Cervantes made his way back to Spain but was captured en route by Barbary pirates. His kidnappers imprisoned Cervantes in Algeria for five years until a ransom was organized and paid by a group of Spanish monks. This period of imprisonment would have a profound effect on Cervantes.
Now 37, Cervantes was forced to work for the government to pay off his ransom debt and worked collecting olive oil and wheat for the Spanish Armada being assembled to invade England. Two years after the defeat of the great Armada by the English in 1588, Cervantes petitioned the crown to be allowed to move to the New World. He was turned down.
Throughout this period Cervantes was writing and by 1590 had garnered somewhat of a reputation largely on the back of his first published prose work La Galatea. He also began to write plays for local theatre companies and short stories, neither of which made much of an impression.
Don Quixote de la Mancha, published in 1605 was however an enormous success. It brought Cervantes fame and the novel was translated in English and French. In many ways it was the first modern blockbuster novel. Various editions of the novel were reprinted and a second part of the novel was published in 1615 again to renewed success. His collection of short stories, a satiric poem, Journey from Parnassus and his plays were all revisited and published, this time to plenty of attention. His final work, The Travails of Persiles and Sigismunda, was finished four days before his death and at the time regarded as a significant work almost on par with Don Quixote. 
Cervantes died in Madrid on April 23, 1616, interestingly on the same day as William Shakespeare.

Don Quixote

The first part of Don Quixote de la Mancha was published when Cervantes was 58 years old. The novel is regarded as one of the first modern novels and is the most influential work of Spanish literature. The novel regularly appears on lists of the great books.  
The novel is an episodic and similar to other picaresque novels of the age.
The first part was a satire on 16th century Spanish society but explores the universal themes of human nature such as love, deception, aging, and friendship. Part two continues the themes but is more philosophical and melancholic than farcical. The novel exerted a significant influence on European literature and still remains a widely read satire.

Quixote is an old country gentleman living in rural La Mancha who is obsessed with tales of knights and chivalry. Quixote is famously a tall, thin, idealistic and easily deluded. Most of his friends and neighbours think in slightly insane. He decides to search out adventure and saddles up his broken down old horse Rocinante, invents a chivalric love in the form of a neighboring farm girl, whom he renames Dulcinea and sets off on a series of quests. Along the way he picks up a short, fat squire named Panza. The adventures become even more bizarre as Quixote increasingly becomes the butt of practical jokes and a victim of his own delusions.
Cervantes’ novel breaks with the traditional chivalric romance. While a number of knightly adventures ensue they are satirical devices to skewer orthodoxy, notions of courtly love, veracity, and even the character of the Spanish themselves. Don Quixote was also innovative in its descriptions of ordinary people.
So important was the character of Don Quixote that ‘quixotic’ became a word in many languages. The book’s most famous scene, where the short sighted Quixote charges a windmill thinking it is a giant resulted in the common phrase "tilting at windmills" to describe an act of attacking imaginary enemies.