Green calf spine with tan title plate, gilt banding and title. Green cloth boards. Dimensions are for one volume.

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Please view our photographs of this Don Quixote published by Cassell Petter & Galpin, Note: the text blocks were likely printed in the 1870s.The History of Don Quixote published by Cassell, Petter, and Galpin in the circa 1870s is a highly collectible, oversized antique edition famed for its magnificent illustrations by the French artist Gustave Doré. Because these volumes were typically issued undated, bibliographers often verify their 1870s provenance through records like the British Library. The market price for an 1870s Cassell, Petter & Galpin edition of Don Quixote generally ranges from £180 to £500, depending heavily on the binding condition and completeness. Structurally, this specific 737-page tome translates Miguel de Cervantes’ masterpiece into distinct parts split into 126 total chapters, complemented by unique historical front matter.

Chapter Structure & Book Layout

The volume is meticulously edited by J.W. Clark with a custom biographical layout. Its content is broken down as follows:

• Preliminary Material: Features a comprehensive Biographical Notice of Cervantes written by T. Teignmouth Shore.

• Part I (Chapters 1 to 52): Covers Don Quixote’s initial lifestyle, his first and second sally from home, the famous windmill battle, the innkeeper knight-dubbing ceremony, and his eventual cage-bound return home.

• Part II (Chapters 1 to 74): Numbering resets to Chapter 1. It details his third and final sally, the orchestration of Dulcinea’s “enchantment” by Sancho Panza, the stay at the Duke and Duchess’s castle, and Quixote’s ultimate sanity-restoring defeat and death.

• Gustave Doré Illustrations: The text is punctuated by 118 full-page plates and roughly 300 in-text illustrations, headers, and tailpieces.

Who wrote The History of Don Quixote & who was Gustave Doré?

The classic novel was written by the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, while Gustave Doré was the visionary French artist who created the iconic illustrations for the 1870s Cassell edition.

The Author: Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616)

Miguel de Cervantes was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright.

• The Masterpiece: He published Don Quixote in two parts (1605 and 1615).

• Historical Impact: It is widely tracked as the first modern western novel and one of the greatest works of fiction ever written.

• The Story: He wrote it as a brilliant satire to mock the wildly popular, unrealistic chivalric romances (knight tales) of his era.

The Illustrator: Gustave Doré (1832–1883)

Gustave Doré was a world-famous French printmaker, illustrator, painter, and sculptor.

• Visual Legacy: He is regarded as one of the most prolific and influential book illustrators of the 19th century.

• Definitive Imagery: His dark, highly detailed, dramatic wood-engravings for Don Quixote (first created in 1863) completely redefined how the world visualized the characters.

• Lasting Influence: Almost every modern cinematic, theatrical, or artistic depiction of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza—such as the gaunt, tall knight on a scrawny horse next to a short, stout squire on a donkey—is directly copied from Doré’s visual imagination.