Don Quixote

In one of the world’s first and greatest novels, don Quixote of la Mancha becomes obsessed with romantic tales of chivalry, dubs himself knight, and sets out in search of adventure. Accompanied by his scrawny, sleepy steed—an old horse he renames Rocinante—and his stalwart squire, the unforgettable, impish Sancho Panza, the knight-errant gallivants around seventeenth-century Spain, righting what he is sure are wrongs, getting hit with many sticks, and bouncing from adventure to adventure. Nothing if not courageous, don Quixote valiantly rides into battle against windmills he mistakes for giants, sheep he is sure are a charging army, and a certain set of colossal wineskins. A hilarious satire full of adventure, friendship, and profound questions, Don Quixote endures as one of the most influential pieces of literature in the world.

This bold new translation gives us Don Quixote as it was for Cervantes’s first readers: a rollicking, uproarious comedy. With stylish, inventive verve, Kimi Traube captures the comic zing of Cervantes’s puns, slapstick, and satire in accessible language that lands his wit for a twenty-first-century audience. Through the comedy, Cervantes poses questions that remain deeply relevant: How do we know what is true? Who gets to tell the story? What happens when we begin to believe our own lies? Bringing the humor back to life, Traube lets those questions sting anew and gives us a Don Quixote for a new generation.