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Cervantes is considered one of the greatest writers of all time. Often, Cervantes is compared to Shakespeare. Both men have become "national literary treasures" glowing during "golden ages" of literature. Cervantes was writing along aside a number of literary luminaries, many of whom were more esteemed during their era than ours. Lope de Vega, Quevedo, and Calderon among them. The words in the preface of Book I suggest that Quixote began thinking about the novel while he was in prison. Even after Book I was completed, it took some time before Quixote was able to find a publisher. This publisher, Francisco Robles of Madrid, was reluctant to take the book and he did not bother securing a copyright for Aragon or Portugal, thinking that Castile would be enough.

The book was an immediate success. Pirated editions could be found in Valencia and Portugal until the next year, when Cervantes acquired the appropriate copyrights. The aristocracy was not amused with the novel's critique on chivalric literature. Lope de Vega, the most renown of Cervantes' contemporaries, was extremely dismissive of Don Quixote. A Brussels edition was published in 1607. The seventh edition of the novel was published in Madrid in 1608.

The first translation of Don Quixote was the English translation done by Shelton in 1608, and published in 1612. In 1687, John Philips, a nephew of John Milton, re-translated Don Quixote, announcing that it was "made English according to the humour of our modern language."

Don Quixote is a middle-aged gentleman from the region of La Mancha in central Spain. Obsessed with the chivalrous ideals touted in books he has read, he decides to take up his lance and sword to defend the helpless and destroy the wicked. After a first failed adventure, he sets out on a second one with a somewhat befuddled laborer named Sancho Panza, whom he has persuaded to accompany him as his faithful squire. In return for Sancho’s services, Don Quixote promises to make Sancho the wealthy governor of an isle. On his horse, Rocinante, a barn nag well past his prime, Don Quixote rides the roads of Spain in search of glory and grand adventure. He gives up food, shelter, and comfort, all in the name of a peasant woman, Dulcinea del Toboso, whom he envisions as a princess...............