Don of a new era
'The sloppiest masterpiece in existence' gets translated -- for the umpteenth time
by Ian Garrick Mason
Nearly 200 years ago, officers of the Duke of Wellington's army in Spain often chose to while away the long winter days before the start of each campaigning season by reading Spanish literature in translation. They were particularly fond of Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote, which was already 200 years old by then. They were likely reading Tobias Smollett's 1755 version, which was, for many years, the most popular English translation. A novelist himself, Smollett's idiosyncratic rendering brought out Cervantes' humour with particular strength.
