Interspersed among these adventures are a series of stories and moral tales, illustrating the pastoral storytelling tradition in Spain. As well, there are two long, learned disquisitions, delivered by Quixote. The first is a description of the Golden Age of mythology, told during a supper shared with some unlettered goatherds who don't understand a word he says. Later on, Quixote addresses a company during dinner at an inn in a debate about whether the career of arms is superior to that of letters, or vice versa.
Throughout the adventures it becomes clear that Quixote, for all his seeming madness, is a mild-mannered, empathetic man, genuine in his concern for chivalric ideals. Although he has agendas of his own, Sancho Panza has come to believe in and show loyalty to his new master. But in spite of all his good intentions, Quixote's quest leads him to be returned home, imprisoned in a cage on an ox-cart by his village priest and barber for Don Quixote's own good.
Published in a separate volume, Book Two of Don Quixote's adventures contains a unique feature. Shortly after Book One was published and Cervantes was at work on Book Two, he got word of the appearance of a pirated Book Two in which the author, a writer named Avellaneda, presumed to write further adventures of the knight, going so far as to renounce his service to Dulcinea. Cervantes was at Chapter 59 in Book Two, having Quixote and Panza headed to a jousting tournament in Saragossa. Now, angered by the pirated version, Cervantes sets forth in revenge by having Quixote and Panza eating dinner at an inn and "overhearing" talk of the Avellaneda version. The knight and squire promptly set forth to Barcelona, home of Don Alvaro Tarfe, a character from the Avellaneda book. When they arrive in Barcelona, they kidnap the Avellaneda character.
