14. The author of Don Quixote penned perhaps the most famous fictional account of the glass delusion
Far from arousing his desires, the potion simply makes the protagonist of Cervantes’ story delusional. Before long, he becomes a complete hermit, believing himself to be made entirely from glass. Tomas not only loses his lover, he also loses his career, shuns shoes and clothes and almost starves himself to death out of fear of going outside. The Glass Graduate ends with Tomas becoming a celebrity before regaining his sanity. To escape his notoriety as the ‘glass man of Spain’, he joins the army, only to be killed on the field of battle.
