The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, Part 26

In one of the novel's most haunting episodes, Don Quixote descends into the Cave of Montesinos, a fissure in the heart of La Mancha that leads to an underground kingdom of the enchanted dead. What he finds there will unsettle even his most steadfast convictions about chivalry. Ghostly knights languish in an eternal half-life, their armor rusted, their swords unbroken but useless. The great Durandarte lies waiting for his beloved Belerma, who arrives each day to cut his heart from his breast with a ceremonial dagger, a cruelty that never kills, only repeats. Montesinos, the ancient guardian of this realm, greets the deluded knight as a brother and shows him wonders that may be visions, dreams, or madness itself. When Don Quixote finally emerges, even he cannot say with certainty whether he has seen true enchantments or merely dreamed them. This is the heart of Cervantes's masterpiece: a man so committed to his idealized world that he must accept enchantment as real, even as his grip on reality loosens. For readers who love stories that blur the line between what we see and what we believe.