Don Quixote

‘Didn’t I tell you they were only windmills? And only someone with windmills on the brain could have failed to see that!’

Don Quixote has become so entranced by reading romances of chivalry that he determines to become a knight errant and pursue bold adventures, accompanied by his squire, the cunning Sancho Panza. As they roam the world together, the ageing Quixote’s fancy leads them wildly astray. At the same time the relationship between the two men grows with fascinating subtlety. Often considered to be the first modern novel, Don Quixote is a wonderful burlesque of the popular literature its disordered protagonist is obsessed with.

John Rutherford’s landmark translation does full justice to the energy and wit of Cervantes’s prose. His introduction discusses the traditional works parodied in Don Quixote and issues of literary translation.