Don Quixote

Why it’s on the list: An impoverished Spanish gentleman reads so many chivalric romances that he rides out as a knight, with the farmer Sancho Panza as his squire, into a world that has no use for knights — routinely called the first modern novel, and the book where the argument between the world as it is and as it ought to be gets its permanent shape.

Where I heard about it

• Founders Classical Academy of Lewisville, Texas — on its fifth-grade reading list, marked “select episodes for young readers,” posted by the Classic Learning Test in September 2026. Full sequence: Founders Classical Academy Reading List.

About this edition

Part One appeared in 1605, Part Two in 1615. Fifth graders get selected episodes — the windmills, the inn, the helmet that is a barber’s basin — which is a good way in.

Connections

• Founders Classical Academy Reading List — the curriculum this came from; 56 unique titles across 5th through 12th grade.
• Classical Education — the movement whose canon this list is.
• Miguel de Cervantes
• Literature