The prize-winning translation of Miguel de Cervantes’smock-epic masterwork

Don Quixote has become so entranced by reading romances of chivalry that hedetermines to become a knight errant and pursue bold adventures, accompanied byhis squire, the cunning Sancho Panza. As they roam the world together, theaging Quixote’s fancy leads them wildly astray, tilting at windmills, fightingwith friars, and distorting the rural Spanish landscape into a fantasy ofimpenetrable fortresses and wicked sorcerers. At the same time the relationshipbetween the two men grows in fascinating subtlety. Often considered to be thefirst modern novel,Don Quixoteis a wonderful burlesque ofthe popular literature its disordered protagonist is obsessed with.

John Rutherford’s landmark translation ofDon Quixotewon the2002 Premio Valle Inclan prize for translation. His introduction discusses thetraditional works parodied inDon Quixoteand issues ofliterary translation.

‘John Rutherford makesDon Quixotefunny and readable … HisQuixote can be pompous, imposingly learned, secretly fearful, mad and touching’Colin Burrow,The Times Literary Supplement

About the Author

Miguel Cervantes (Author)
Miguel de Cervantes Saaverda’s (1547-1616) life was occupied with a struggle toearn a livelihood from literature and humble government employment. As wellasDon Quixote, he wrote a number of plays and a collection ofhighly accomplished short stories,Exemplary Tales(1613).