Tilting at windmills Don Quixote fights windmills that he imagines are giants. A relevant portion of the novel states: Cervantes wrote "Don Quixote" in two parts, published respectively in 1605 and 1615, during the latter part of a historical period known as the Spanish Golden Age. During this age, Spain pursued military conquests in parts of Europe and conquered large parts of the Americas, which brought great riches to the country and inspired a flowering of the arts. In La Mancha, Castilla, Cervantes' setting for the novel, there still exist some examples of the era's windmills that Don Quixote found in his adventures.
Marcus Corvinus (fictional character) Marcus Corvinus (fictional character) Marcus Valerius Messala Corvinus is a fictional character in a series of historical detective novels by the Scottish author David Wishart. Corvinus (he goes by his "cognomen") is of a noble Roman family, living in the reign of the Emperor Tiberius. He has turned his back on the "cursus honorum", preferring a quiet private life with his wife, Rufia Perilla, the scholarly, beautiful stepdaughter of the poet Ovid. Corvinus' main activity is solving mysteries and crimes. He met his wife when she contacted him to investigate the circumstances surrounding the exile and death of her stepfather,