Through the centuries Cervantes' Don Quixote (1605/1615) has delighted readers, inspired artists, and helped form our perception of early modern Spain. Moreover, it has played a major part in the development and theoretisation of one of the modern world's most central artistic forms: the novel.

Don Quixote and the Novel deals with the reception of Cervantes' masterpiece in literary criticism, examining Don Quixote's significance for novelistic theory from the 17th century through today. As such, the book is an introduction to the literary history of this seminal modern genre. Demonstrating the recurring schism between Enlightenment and Romanticism in the critical reception of Cervantes' masterpiece, it further raises an important cultural historical discussion, approached from the advantageous basis of a single outstanding work. Finally, the book's individual chapters may be read separately as introductions to some of the great figures of novelistic theory, including Friedrich Schlegel, Viktor Šklovskij, Georg Lukács, and Milan Kundera.