Don Quixote

The History of the Renowned Don Quixote de la Mancha, by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. London: The Nonesuch Press, 1930.

Peter Anthony Motteux' translation revised anew (1743) & corrected rectified and filled up in numberless places by J. Ozell who likewise added the explanatory notes from the best editions in English and Spanish. Reprint of the seventh edition, initially published in 1743, with twenty-one illustrations by American artist and graphic designer Edward McKnight Kauffer, hailed in his lifetime as "the poster king" and best known for his modernist poster art, a style clearly suffusing the plates of this edition.

The Production

2 volumes, 8vo, pp.ix, 502; vi, 548. Originally published on 16 December 1930; 1,475 copies (575 for Random House) at £5.5s. and $42.00. This being copy number 518.

All edges untrimmed; top edge gilt "on the rough"; headbands; flexibly sewn and bound in full natural niger, with leather spine labels. Issued in thin paper wrappers (no longer present on these copies), in a marbled paper covered slipcase. Monotype Goudy Modern, with hand-engraved Goudy titling on title page printed in terra-cotta, printed by Cambridge University Press on Casinensis handmade paper. 

Edward McKnight Kauffer supplied 21 illustrations (vol. I, frontispiece and facing pp. 32, 80, 128, 176, 224, 272, 320, 368, 416, 464; vol. II, frontispiece and facing pp. 50, 98, 146, 210, 290, 338, 402, 484, 530), printed with grey outline by photogravure and hand-coloured at the Curwen Press by the stencil process. Don Quixote was the last of ten Nonesuch editions to benefit of the rather expensive (particularly at a time of economic depression in the 1930s) stencil process, and it was Kauffer's third and last Nonesuch book, widely considered to be his most impressive achievement as an illustrator. Founder of the Nonesuch Press Francis Meynell regarded the frontispiece to the first volume as the finest in any modern book he knew. Interestingly, when Kauffer drew his illustrations, he had never visited Spain, but after returning from a journey there lasting several weeks, he told Meynell that much to his own surprise, he had found his Don Quixote had 'the character of the country and the people'. 

A truly luxurious production with no expenses spared for the Nonesuch Press, the paper used was a standout feature. Meynell declared in Century: "The paper is perhaps the most attractive ever used by the Nonesuch Press. It is a very rare thing to find a thin hand-made paper, rarer still to find one that is thin and adequately opaque. The frontispiece to the first volume seems to be the finest of any modern book that I know."

The Translation

In 1929, David Garnett wrote: "The choice of a translation has greatly exercised the directors of The Nonesuch Press, who have fully satisfied themselves that in Ozell’s second and final revision of Motteux’s text they have chosen the most readable and by far the most accurate of the versions...

Spanish in 1600 was far more mature and sober a language than Elizabethan English. It is in spirit like the English of 1700, and for that reason Motteux is to be preferred to Shelton.

Motteux unfortunately was slipshod. But a comparison of Ozell’s emendations with the original Spanish showed that he had an extraordinarily good knowledge of the language, and the seventh edition, completely 'revised anew,' is a most faithful and altogether admirable translation."

Condition

Leather ever-so-slightly worn in places, very light tanning to spine, mild foxing to covers and edges. All contents are very fresh and clean. Joints and hinges intact with pages tightly bound. Housed in the original marbled slipcase with straight corners, showing some wear to joints and some splits that have been closed with transparent, archival tape. A lovely set in overall very good, smart condition.

References: Dreyfus, 70, p. 55.

A rather scarce, beautiful set of Cervantes' epic that regales the chivalrous adventures of the eccentric nobleman Don Quixote and his faithful squire Sancho Panza. Often labelled as the first modern novel and unsurprisingly, in our opinion at Sancho's Rare Books, one of the greatest works ever written.