The First Part of the Life and Achievements of the Renowned Don Quixote de la Mancha.

Cervantes, Miguel De

Published by By William Stansby For Ed: Blounte, London, 1620

About this Item

Rare second edition of the first part of Don Quixote in English. Octavo, bound in contemporary calf, engraved title page, woodcut headpieces and decorative initials. In very good condition with some wear to the binding, portion of upper spine. Translated by Thomas Shelton. Exceptionally rare and desirable. Don Quixote tells the tale of a man so entranced by reading about the chivalrous romantic ideals touted in books that he decides to take up his sword and become a knight-errant himself, with the aims of defending the helpless and warding off the wicked. With his somewhat confused laborer-turned-squire, Sancho Panza, they roam the world together and have adventures that have haunted reader's imaginations for nearly four hundred years. Don Quixote is generally recognized as the first modern novel. Over those years, it has had an incredible influence on thousands of writers, from Dickens to Faulkner, who once said he reread it once a year, "just as some people read the Bible". Vladimir Nabokov is quoted as saying, "Don Quixote is greater today than he was in Cervantes's womb. [He] looms so wonderfully above the skyline of literature, a gaunt giant on a lean nag, that the book lives and will live through [his] sheer vitality. He stands for everything that is gentle, forlorn, pure, unselfish, and gallant. The parody has become a paragon.".

Seller Inventory # 74055

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The First Part of the Life and Achievements of the Renowned Don Quixote de la Mancha.
• Publisher: By William Stansby For Ed: Blounte, London
• Publication Date: 1620
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • First Edition