Harold Bloom says that Don Quixote is a work of radical nihilism and anarchism, which prefers the glory of fantasy over a real world, which includes imminent death, and is "the first modern novel".[5]

Edith Grossman, who wrote and published a highly acclaimed English translation of the novel in 2003, says that the book is mostly meant to move people into emotion using a systematic change of course, on the verge of both tragedy and comedy at the same time.