The ingenious hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha

An incredible adventure, the first part being startling at how wonderfully original the premise is and then, in my opinion, the second part is perhaps the greatest achievement in literature... To effectively invent the novel, and then invent meta fiction around that novel while deepening the psyches of his two main characters, Cervantes is absolutely one of the supreme geniuses in all art. The best part about this book is that Quixote and Sancho are such seemingly static yet dynamic characters, their morals and resolve so steadfast, that they truly come to feel as friends by the end of the book. I don't think I've ever experienced that with any other novel, but at the end, there really was a small feeling that a friend had died, or a relationship ended, such was my love for the Don and his squire.