An in-depth study of Miguel de Cervantes’s masterpiece in a fine English translation. Setting the novel in historical context, we’ll also analyze fascinating themes such as the portrayal of mental illness, the role of fiction in life, Cervantes’s literary innovations, humor, the relationship between men and women, humans and animals, humans and books, in one of the most influential novels of all time.

Leyla Rouhi is Mary A. and William Wirt Warren Professor of Romance Languages at Williams College where she teaches all levels of Spanish. She has published extensively on early modern Spain, with some works outside that realm: 19^th-century Spanish culture, Persian literature and culture, Russian cinema, sustainable farming in Vermont, to name a few. She is also the co-translator from Spanish into English of Europe’s first time-travel novel.

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