Tirant lo Blanc (original 1490; edição 1990)

It is significant that among the romances burned by the priest in Don Quixote, Cervantes saved Amadís de Gaula, Palmerín de Inglaterra, and Tirant lo Blanc, which he calls "the best book in the world." Tirant lo Blanc was written at a time when the tradition of medieval knights was in decline, and by a writer-knight also somewhat anachronistic. The work has a modernist feel ages before the era of modernism came to be. This is evident in its dynamic characters, with both positive traits and defects, and its many breaks from the traditional narrative structure of heroic epics popular in its time. Tirant is a Breton who travels the world having exciting adventures as a knight, but the story also contains a romantic element based on the hero's love of Carmesina, the emperor's daughter. The story has an abrupt ending in a style highly innovative for the western world at the time it was written.