This book tells the story of how Gustave Flaubert s admiration for Miguel Cervantes "Don Quijote" unfolded, and how profoundly it shaped and influenced Flaubert s ambition and his approach to all his major works, beginning with his breakthrough novel "Madame Bovary." It thus fills a major gap in the history of the novel and explores, for the first time, just what Flaubert meant when he said, I can trace all my origins back to the book I knew by heart. This study situates each author in his respective historical and aesthetic context, and provides key examples from "Don Quijote" and "Madame...