In 1923, the Navarre Society of London published a deluxe two-volume edition of Miguel de Cervantes’ masterpiece, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, featuring the celebrated seventeenth-century translation by Thomas Shelton. This edition reprints Shelton’s translation from the first edition of 1612-1620, preserving the archaic charm and vigor of the earliest English version of the Spanish classic.
The work includes a new preface by F.J. Harvey Darton, providing scholarly context for Shelton’s translation and its place in English literary history. The volumes are illustrated with two portraits, eighteen plates, and facsimiles of the original engraved titles, offering readers visual engagement with both the text and its historical presentation.
These octavo volumes were privately printed for the Navarre Society in a limited edition. Many copies were subsequently bound by renowned London binders Sangorski & Sutcliffe in three-quarter brown morocco leather with green paper-covered boards and matching endpapers, reflecting the fine press aspirations of the publisher . The pagination runs to approximately xix, 548 pages in the first volume and vii, 529 pages in the second.
The edition presents Shelton’s translation, which first appeared in two parts in 1612 and 1620, making it the inaugural English rendering of Cervantes’ tale of the ingenious gentleman who reads so many chivalric novels that he sets out to revive knighthood, accompanied by his earthy squire Sancho Panza. This Navarre Society edition remains a sought-after collectible for bibliophiles interested in Cervantes, early English translation, and fine private press printing of the early twentieth century.
