Miguel de Cervantes lost the use of his left hand at the Battle of Lepanto, spent five years as a prisoner of Barbary pirates, failed at every career he attempted, and went to prison for financial irregularities. Then, at fifty-seven, broke and bitter, he published Don Quixote — the book that invented the modern novel. The man who created the most influential work of fiction in Western literature considered himself a failure for most of his life.

This episode traces Cervantes from his soldier years through captivity, career failures, and the late-life masterpiece that transformed European literature and gave the world its most enduring comic hero.

• The Battle of Lepanto, the maiming of his left hand, and the five years of captivity in Algiers
• The failed careers — tax collecting, provisioning the Armada — and the prison tim ...