"The History of Don Quixote by Cervantes" [Unabridged both parts]; edited by J.W. Clark, illustrated by Gustave Dore, published by P.F. Collier, New York, Collier's Illustrated Library of Standard Authors, undated [1880s].

"Don Quixote", first published in 1605, is considered the most influential work of literature from the Spanish Golden Age and the entire Spanish literary. As a founding work of modern Western literature, and one of the earliest canonical novels, it regularly appears high on lists of the greatest works of fiction ever published. In one such list, "Don Quixote" was cited as the "best literary work ever written."

Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Dore [1832-1883] was a French artist, printmaker, illustrator, caricaturist, and sculptor who worked primarily with wood-engraving. In the 1860s, he illustrated a French edition of Cervantes's "Don Quixote" (1863), and his depictions of the knight and his squire, Sancho Panza, have become so famous that they have influenced subsequent readers, artists, and stage and film directors' ideas of the physical "look" of the two characters. His illustrations gave a whole new understanding to the novel. Dore moved the boundaries of the classical depiction of Quixote; he managed to show him not only as the hero he believed himself to be, but to show the world from his perspective too. In his illustrations, Dore also sustained the comic elements of the novel, something that many previous illustrators have neglected to do.



US: Priority (c.4-8 days) ----------- $14.50
Canada: Priority (c.2-6 weeks) ------ $29.50
World: Priority (c.2-8 weeks) ------- $39.95

Hard boards with blind embossed decorations, original publisher’s cloth, faux leather appearance, gold lettering on front board and spine; slightly bumped upper edge and corner; large format [8.1/4” x 11.1/2”]; 480 pages, over 100 Dore’s illustrations, very good condition.