Don Quixote is a middle-aged man living in 16th century La Mancha in Spain who is obsessed with romance novels involving chivalry. He arms himself to defend the weak and vanquish the wicked. The two-part novel is the story of his many and often very humorous adventures. The novel is rated as one of the premier works of Western literature and is the source of the popular terms "tilting at windmills" and "quixotic" for one's pursuit of something purely fanciful.