This book presents the extraordinary case of a man that did not find himself until fifty-five. The events throughout the book have a certain classic quality, a certain relationship between their outwardness and their inwardness, a certain concrete reality, that show an existence before they passed through the crucible of the author's transmuting power, for their previous existence in literature was as vivid to him as if it had been in life. Contents: Introductory Childhood and Youth, 1547-1568 Early Manhood, 1569-1580 His Prime, 1581-1602 The First Part of Don Quijote The Interval, 1605-1613 The Second Part of Don Quijote, 1614-1616 Notes