The Adventures of Don Quixote De La Mancha; Translated From the Spanish of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. [Fore-edge Painting].

CERVANTES, Miguel de. Translated by Charles Jarvis.

Item Number: 121450

London: Ward, Lock & Co, [c. 1880].

Finely bound example of Jarvis’ translation of Cervantes’ masterpiece. Octavo, bound in full morocco with gilt titles and tooling to the spine, double gilt ruling to the front and rear panel, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Illustrated by Tony Johannot, tissue-guarded frontispiece in color. With a fore-edge painting of Don Quixote charging on his trusty steed Rocinante. In near fine condition.

Often cited as the first modern novel, Cervantes' masterpiece Don Quixote remains not only the most influential work of literature to emerge from the Spanish Golden Age, but the most important work of the entire Spanish literary canon. First published in 1605, Don Quixote gained immediate popularity in Spain for its "variety, liveliness, and gibes at the famous" while Cervantes' universal portrayal of the human condition has cemented its status as "one of those universal works which are read by all ages at all times" (PMM). The Ibarra edition swiftly became the preferred edition in Spain when it appeared in 1780 (Palau, 52024). “It is interesting to realize that the first modern novel was composed by a sick, aged and impoverished man, who believed that a satirical tale might produce more revenue than the poems and plays that he regarded as his more serious mission. Under the guise of a parody on romances of chivalry, Cervantes created a study of reality and illusion, madness and sanity, that links him with such acute 16th-century students of psychology as Erasmus, Rabelais, Montaigne, and Shakespeare” (Folger’s Choice, 30).