Introduction

'In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to recall…' A country gentleman of about fifty reads so many books of chivalry that he comes to believe he is a knight errant himself. He names himself Don Quixote and his bony horse Rocinante, takes a farm girl from a neighbouring village as his lady Dulcinea, makes the short, stout peasant Sancho Panza his squire, and rides out to right wrongs and defend the weak. He charges windmills thinking them giants, takes flocks of sheep for armies and inns for castles, and is beaten again and again, yet never abandons his ideal. In two parts, the novel is both a parody of the romances of chivalry and a profound exploration of ideal and reality, madness and wisdom; it is generally regarded as the first modern novel. We publish the complete translation in volumes.