This authoritative textual edition presents Tobias Smolletts translation of Cervantess Don Quixote in the form most faithful to Smolletts own intentions. It includes Francis Haymans twenty-eight illustrations engraved for the original edition, Smolletts explanatory notes, and his prefatory Life of Cervantes.Smolletts Don Quixote first appeared in 1755 and was for many years the most popular English-language version of Cervantess masterpiece. However, soon after the start of the nineteenth century, its reputation began to suffer. Rival translators, literary hucksters, and careless scholars initiated or fed a variety of charges against Smollett-even plagiarism. For almost 130 years no publisher risked reprinting it.Redemption began in 1986, when the distinguished Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes, in his foreword to a new (albeit flawed) edition of Smolletts translation, declared it to be the authentic vernacular version of Don Quixote in English. Fuentess opinion was in accord with that of the preeminent Cervantist, Francisco Rodrguez Marn, who decades earlier had declared Smolletts Don Quixote to be his preferred English version.Martin C. Battestins introduction discusses the composition, publication, and controversial reception of Smolletts Don Quixote. Battestins notes identify Smolletts sources in his Life of Cervantes and in his commentary, provide cross-references to his other works, and illustrate Smolletts originality or dependence on previous translations. Also included is a complete textual apparatus, a glossary of unfamiliar terms, and an appendix comparing a selection of Francis Haymans original illustrations with the engraved renderings used in the book.