The epic tale of Don Quixote and his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, and their picaresque adventures in the world of seventeenth century Spain, form the basis of one of the great treasures of Western literature - a book that is both a hilarious satire of the chivalric code and a biting portrayal of an age in which nobility can be a form of madness. This brand-new, thoroughly modern translation, and the extensive introduction and footnotes, make Cervantes' masterpiece more delightful and accessible to English readers than ever before. Tom Lathrop has been editor of the Bulletin of the Cervantes Society of America and has received numerous awards for his scholarship, including being invested by the king of Spain as an Officer in the Order of Isobel la Catholica. A PhD in Romance Language and Literatures, he is Professor Emeritus at the University of Delaware, where he taught Romance Languages for 27 years. He is also the Founding Editor of Juan de la Cuesta Hispanic Monographs, which has published many books about Cervantes, and is the author of three Spanish textbook programs and three Portuguese textbook programs.