Cervantes, Miguel de “Don Quixote de la Mancha” [W. Wilson, 1821] Fine Binding

CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, Miguel de. The Life and Exploits of Don Quixote de la Mancha.

London: Printed by W. Wilson for multiple publishers, 1821. Translated from the original Spanish by Charles Jarvis. Complete four-volume set, finely bound in full green morocco with elaborate gilt decoration. Raised bands to spines, with gilt-lettered title and volume compartments surrounded by ornamental floral tooling. Boards feature gilt-ruled borders with decorative cornerpieces and blind-tooled floral designs. Gilt-decorated board edges and turn-ins, with red endpapers and gilt page edges. Engraved frontispiece portrait of Cervantes in Volume I. Leather shows rubbing and wear along joints and extremities, with areas of surface loss and discoloration, particularly near the spines. All joints remain secure, and the gilt decoration is bright and well-preserved. Pages lightly toned, with occasional scattered spotting. Very Good-.

Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote, originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, is among the most influential works in Western literature and a foundational novel of modern fiction. The story follows Alonso Quijano, a Spanish gentleman whose obsession with chivalric romances leads him to reinvent himself as the knight-errant Don Quixote. Accompanied by his pragmatic squire, Sancho Panza, he embarks upon a series of adventures exploring the boundaries between imagination and reality, idealism and practicality.

This edition presents the celebrated English translation by Charles Jarvis (1695–1739), first published in 1742. Jarvis's translation became one of the most widely read English versions of Cervantes's novel throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The four volumes are housed in matching decorative leather bindings characteristic of the period, with richly gilt spines and an attractive combination of gilt and blind tooling.