1871 Rare Book - History of Don Quixote de la Mancha Illustrated by Gustave Dore

Author: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.
Title: The History of Don Quixote de la Mancha. From the Spanish of Cervantes.
Publisher: New-York, Leavitt & Allen Bros., 1871.
Language: Text in English.
Size: 8" x 5".
Pages: viii, 424 pages.
Binding: Very good original green cloth binding, richly decorated in gilt and black to the upper board and spine, with blind-stamped ornament to the rear board. Light wear and rubbing to the extremities, with some wear to the upper spine and corners, as shown. Protected in a removable mylar cover. 
Content: Very good content, generally clean and tight, with light age-toning and occasional minor spotting. Gift note/ownership inscription of a previous owner dated January 1872 on the first endpaper, as shown.
Illustrations: Complete with six full-page black-and-white illustrations by Gustave Doré, including the frontispiece, protected by tissue guard.

Estimate: USD $250–$300.

The book: Attractive nineteenth-century American edition of The History of Don Quixote de la Mancha, illustrated with six full-page plates by Gustave Doré. This edition presents Cervantes’ great comic and philosophical masterpiece in a handsome publisher’s green cloth binding, with bold gilt decoration and striking diagonal title panels on the front cover.

Doré’s illustrations bring a dramatic visual grandeur to the world of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, capturing both the absurdity and the pathos of the knight’s adventures. 

The author: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was the great Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright whose Don Quixote became one of the foundational works of modern fiction. First published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel follows the adventures of an aging gentleman who, inspired by chivalric romances, reinvents himself as a knight-errant.

The illustrator: Gustave Doré was one of the most celebrated illustrators of the nineteenth century, admired for his monumental interpretations of literary classics. His work for Don Quixote remains among his most memorable achievements, giving Cervantes’ characters a powerful blend of comedy, melancholy, and theatrical imagination.