Response

Cervantes's deathbed novel, The Trials of Persiles and Sigismunda: A Northern Story, uses the pilgrimage of the two eponymous protagonists to show them as exemplars of the virtues not only necessary for ordinary life, but also those qualities essential to true leadership. The novel constitutes Cervantes's final written words, barely completed in partial rough draft before he expired, and accordingly might be considered his last words on the ideas and traits most important for human flourishing.