Don Quixote (Wordsworth Classics)

Translated by P. A. Motteux
With an Introduction and Notes by Stephen Boyd, University College, Cork

Cervantes’ tale of the deranged gentleman who turns knight-errant, tilts at windmills, and battles with sheep in the service of the lady of his dreams, Dulcinea del Toboso, has fascinated generations of readers. It has also inspired other creative artists such as Flaubert, Picasso, and Richard Strauss. The tall, thin knight and his short, fat squire, Sancho Panza, have found their way into films, cartoons, and even computer games.

A Parody Turned Masterpiece

Supposedly intended as a parody of the most popular escapist fiction of the day, the ‘books of chivalry’, this precursor of the modern novel broadened and deepened into a sophisticated, comic account of the contradictions of human nature. On his ‘heroic’ journey, Don Quixote meets characters of every class and condition, including:

• Maritornes, the prostitute commended for her Christian charity
• The Knight of the Green Coat, who seems to embody some of the constraints of virtue

A Work of Subtle Irony

Cervantes’ greatest work can be enjoyed on many levels, all suffused with a subtle irony that reaches out to encompass the reader and does not leave the author outside its circle.

Peter Motteux’s fine eighteenth-century translation, acknowledged as one of the BEST, brilliantly succeeds in communicating the spirit of the original Spanish.