Quest/Satire
The genre of Don Quixote is one of the most interesting things about it, since Miguel de Cervantes wrote the novel as a satire of another, pre-existing literary genre. This is why we call this book a "satirical quest." Don Quixote's story has all of the journeys, romances, and battles of a traditional quest tale, but while a quest story would treat these things seriously, Cervantes uses Don Quixote's madness to show the ridiculousness of the quest genre—not to mention the foolishness of those who love to read it... and love it a little too much.