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Don Quixote

Chapter 2: Translated by John Ormsby
By Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
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About This Book

An aging country gentleman, consumed by chivalric romances, adopts the guise of a knight-errant and embarks on quixotic adventures that bungle chivalric ideals in everyday Spain. With his pragmatic peasant companion he pursues honor, battles imagined foes such as windmills mistaken for giants, and encounters a string of comic, poignant, and interpolated tales that expose human folly. The narrative alternates satirical episodes with reflective digressions on storytelling, authorship, and the clash between idealism and reality. Across two linked sections the pair win fame, endure humiliation, and in the end confront the consequences of illusion and the social responses their quests provoke.

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Don Quixote

This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Don Quixote

Author: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Translator: John Ormsby

Release date: July 27, 2004 [eBook #996]
Most recently updated: March 30, 2023

Language: English

Credits: David Widger

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DON QUIXOTE ***


Don Quixote

by Miguel de Cervantes

Translated by John Ormsby

Ebook Editor’s Note

The book cover and spine above and the images which follow were not part of the original Ormsby translation—they are taken from the 1880 edition of J. W. Clark, illustrated by Gustave Doré. Clark in his edition states that, “The English text of ‘Don Quixote’ adopted in this edition is that of Jarvis, with occasional corrections from Motteaux.” See in the introduction below John Ormsby’s critique of both the Jarvis and Motteaux translations. It has been elected in the present Project Gutenberg edition to attach the famous engravings of Gustave Doré to the Ormsby translation instead of the Jarvis/Motteaux. The detail of many of the Doré engravings can be fully appreciated only by utilizing the “Full Size” button to expand them to their original dimensions. Ormsby in his Preface has criticized the fanciful nature of Doré’s illustrations; others feel these woodcuts and steel engravings well match Quixote’s dreams.            D.W.