A CORNERSTONE OF THE WESTERN CANON: THE FIRST COMPLETE EDITION IN ENGLISH OF DON QUIXOTE, 1620, THE FIRST AND GREATEST TRANSLATION OF CERVANTES’ MASTERPIECE— THE COPY OF LADY ISABELLA CAROLINE, LADY HENRY SOMERSET

CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, Miguel de. (SHELTON, Thomas, translator). The History of DonQuichote. The first parte. Printed for Ed: Blount [1620]. WITH: The Second Part of the History of the Valorous and witty Knight-Errant, Don Quixote of the Mancha. Written in Spanish by Michael Cervantes: And now Translated into English [By Thomas Shelton]. London: Printed for Edward Blount, [1620], 1620. Two volumes. 12mo, 19th-century full reddish-brown morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, raised bands, all edges gilt. Housed in custom clamshell box. $125,000.

The very rare first appearance of both parts of Don Quixote in English, this being the earliest obtainable edition in English of the entire work: comprising the second edition in English of the First Part and the first edition in English of the Second Part. From the Regiate Priory, home of Lady Isabella Caroline, Lady Henry Somerset, notable 19th-century temperance advocate. A splendid copy of a cornerstone of the Western canon.

"A universal classic and arguably the greatest book ever written in Spanish… the first modern novel was composed by a sick, aged and impoverished man, who believed that a satirical tale might produce more revenue than the poems and plays that he regarded as his more serious mission. Under the guise of a parody on romances of chivalry, Cervantes created a study of reality and illusion, madness and sanity, that links him with such acute 16th-century students of psychology as Erasmus, Rabelais, Montaigne and Shakespeare" (Folger's Choice 30). Cervantes is "the only possible peer of Dante and Shakespeare… Confronting the strength of Don Quixote, the reader is never lessened, only enhanced" (Harold Bloom).

Although the First Part of Don Quixote was originally published in 1612, only a handful of copies survive; eminent bookseller A.S.W. Rosenbach called it virtually unobtainable. This edition of 1620, comprising both parts appearing together for the first time in English (including the first English translation of the Second Part), is considered the first complete edition in English and, given the rarity of the 1612 edition, the earliest obtainable English edition. "Not only the first English translation, but the first translation in any language" (Library of Robert Hoe 670). In 1607 Thomas Shelton, "acquiring a knowledge of Spanish, at the request of 'a very deere friend that was desirous to understand the subject,' translated the first part of the Historie of Don-Quixote. The task only occupied him 40 days. The first part of Cervantes' novel originally appeared at Madrid early in 1605. Shelton used a reprint of the original Spanish [for his translation]… But after his friend had glanced at his rendering Shelton cast it aside, where it lay 'for a long time neglected in a corner.' At the end of four or five years, 'at the entreaty of friends, Shelton was content to let it come to light.' In January 1611-12 the work was licensed for publication to Edward Blount and William Barret… The book immediately achieved the popularity that Cervantes' work has always retained in [England]. References to episodes in Don Quixote's story were soon frequent in English literature… Very few copies of the original edition of Shelton's translation of the first part survive; a 1943 census recorded only 17 copies." In 1615 Cervantes published in Madrid his second part of Don Quixote and this appeared in English in 1620 for the first time, also translated by Shelton. "With the second part was published a new edition of the first, and the two were often bound up together… Though Shelton's version bears many traces of haste, and he often seizes with curious effect the English word that is nearest the sound of the Spanish in defiance of its literal meaning, he reproduces in robust phraseology the spirit of the original, and realizes Cervantes' manner more nearly than any successor" (DNB). Bound without the additional engraved title to the second part, as usual. STC 4916-4917. Pforzheimer 140. Grolier, Langland to Wither 213. Catalogo del Quijote 300-301. Ediciones del Quijote 398. Escuerdo 1149-1150. Río y Rico 439. See PMM 111; Ashbee 4; Lowndes, 401; Rosenbach 52:3; 54:33. Bookplates of Isabel Somerset, Regiate Priory. Lady Isabella Caroline, Lady Henry Somerset, a leading late-19th century temperance advocate, "founded Duxhurst, a farm colony, near Reigate, for inebriate women, adding to it afterwards a 'nest' for children rescued from bad surroundings. Duxhurst was the first institution of its kind in England" (DNB). Contemporary owner signatures. A few instances of contemporary ink marginalia.

Light marginal dampstaining to last few leaves of Volume II. Only a few leaves cropped close, affecting gathering markings, printed marginalia and catchwords; main text unaffected. Generally a splendid copy. Wonderful and very nearly fine, extraordinarily scarce and important.