ISBN Don Quixote

Don Quixote

Don Quixote has become so entranced reading tales of chivalry that he decides to turn knight errant himself. In the company of his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, these exploits blossom in all sorts of wonderful ways. While Quixote’s fancy often leads him astray—he tilts at windmills, imagining them to be giants—Sancho acquires cunning and a certain sagacity. Sane madman and wise fool, they roam the world together-and together they have haunted readers’ imaginations for nearly four hundred years.

With its experimental form and literary playfulness, Don Quixote has been generally recognized as the first modern novel. This Penguin Classics edition, with its beautiful new cover design, includes John Rutherford’s masterly translation, which does full justice to the energy and wit of Cervantes’s prose, as well as a brilliant critical introduction by Roberto Gonzalez Echevarriá.
 


About author(s)
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was born in Spain in 1547. He read the classics of Latin, Italian, and Spanish literature; knew mythology well; and was a clever poet. Before his literary career, from 1571 to 1575, Cervantes fought with the Spanish fleet and served in garrisons in Italy. He was captured by the Turks on his way back home and was held for ransom in Algiers for five years. Upon his return to Spain, he held various government posts but faced constant financial hardships and served two terms in prison. His fame was secured with the publication of Don Quixote in 1605 and its sequel ten years later.