num_pages: 1052
description:  Don Quixote is practically unthinkable as a living being," said novelist Milan Kundera. "And yet, in our memory, what character is more alive?"--Widely regarded as the world's first modern novel, Don Quixote chronicles the famous picaresque adventures of the noble knight-errant Don Quixote de La Mancha &amp; his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, as they travel through sixteenth-century Spain. This Modern Library edition presents the acclaimed Samuel Putnam translation of the epic tale, complete with notes, variant readings, &amp; an Introduction by the translator. The debt owed to Cervantes by literature is immense. From Milan Kundera: "Cervantes is the founder of the Modern Era...The novelist need answer to no one but Cervantes." Lionel Trilling observed: "It can be said that all prose fiction is a variation on the theme of Don Quixote."  Vladmir Nabokov wrote: "Don Quixote is greater today than he was in Cervantes's womb. [He] looms so wonderfully above the skyline of literature, a gaunt giant on a lean nag, that the book lives &amp; will live through [his] sheer vitality...He stands for everything that is gentle, forlorn, pure, unselfish &amp; gallant. The parody has become a paragon." V. S. Pritchett observed: "Don Quixote begins as a province, turns into Spain, and ends as a universe...The true spell of Cervantes is that he is a natural magician in pure story-telling." The Modern Library has played a significant role in American cultural life for the better part of a century. The series was founded in 1917 by the publishers Boni &amp; Liveright &amp; eight years later acquired by Bennett Cerf &amp; Donald Klopfer. It provided the foundation for their next publishing venture, Random House. The Modern Library has been a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with affordable hardbound editions of important works of literature &amp; thought. For the Modern Library's seventy-fifth anniversary, Random House redesigned the series, restoring as its emblem the running torchbearer created by Lucian Bernhard in 1925 &amp; refurbishing jackets, bindings &amp; type, as well as inaugurating a new program of selecting titles. The Modern Library continues to provide the world's best books at the best prices.
language: English
title: Don Quixote
titlecomplete: Don Quixote
characters: Sancho Panza, Don Quijote de la Mancha
genres: Literature, Classics, Adventure, Novels, Spain, Spanish Literature, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Humor, Classic Literature
ratings_count: 261109
places: La Mancha, Spain, Barcelona, Catalonia
awards: awardedAt: 1388563200000
name: Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards
category: Best Adaptation from Another Medium & Best Humor Publication, awardedAt: 1262332800000
name: Βραβείο Λογοτεχνικής Μετάφρασης ΕΚΕΜΕΛ
category: Ισπανόφωνη Λογοτεχνία, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Premio Valle-Inclán
category: John Rutherford
publisher: Signet Classics