Novelas ejemplares ("Exemplary Novels") is a series of twelve novellas that follow the model established in Italy.

Cervantes boasted in his foreword to have been the first to write novelas in the Spanish language: My genius and my inclination prompt me to this kind of writing; the more so as I consider (and with truth) that I am the first who has written novels in the Spanish language, though many have hitherto appeared among us, all of them translated from foreign authors.

Since there are multiple versions of two of these stories, it is believed that Cervantes introduced some variations in these novels for moral, social and aesthetic purposes (hence the name 'exemplary').

The more primitive versions were found in the manuscript, now lost, called by the name of its one-time possessor, Porras de la Cámara, a miscellaneous collection of various literary works which include a novel usually attributed to Cervantes, La tía fingida.

On the other hand, some short stories are also embedded in Don Quixote, such as El curioso impertinente or Historia del cautivo, and where a character possesses a manuscript of Rinconete y Cortadillo, unpublished at the time (1605).

Cervantes' novellas inspired several English Jacobean dramas, whose authors might have read them either in French translation or in the Spanish original.

The Cadi wants her for himself, surprised by her beauty and charm, thinking of getting rid of his wife so he can keep her, but Ricardo recovers her to love her properly.

Tomás is sent to school, where he becomes famous for his learning; he grows up, travels all over Europe, and eventually settles in Salamanca, where he completes a degree in law.

The potion does not work, instead putting Tomás in a grave state for months (the woman flees and is never heard from again).

His unshakable belief, combined with his clever, memorable aphorisms in conversation with everyone he meets, make Tomás famous throughout Spain, where he becomes known as 'Vidriera'—from the Spanish vidrio, which means 'glass'.

With time, Tomás recovers his sanity, only to discover to his horror throngs of people who never leave him alone, wanting to see the famous 'Vidriera'.

Repulsed by fame and unable to continue as a lawyer, Tomás joins the army as an infantryman, eventually dying in an obscure battle.

Filipo de Carrizales, a former soldier, who after much financial success abroad in "las Indias" (the term the author uses for America—particularly Peru), settles in Sevilla, succumbing to the desire every man has to return to his homeland; as Cervantes writes, "tocado del natural deseo que todos tienen de volver a su patria".