Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616), The History of Don Quixote;
edited by J. W. Clark and a biographical notice of Cervantes by T. Teignmouth Shore; illustrated by Gustave Doré (London; New York: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, [1864?]). Previous owner William Taylor Scheide (1847-1907). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize 2004-0809Q
“His carte de viste is in such request that his photographer cannot supply the demand; and an order sent from this country for a dozen or two copies remained for weeks unfilled. Better still the publishers vie with each other for the privilege of giving his works to the public. He is able to name his own terms, and finds that no publisher considers them too high.”
The reaction of the critics, on the other hand, was mixed. An unsigned review in Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science, and Art (February 6, 1864), comments “Whether M. Doré has been employed to illustrate Cervantes, or Cervantes to illustrate M. Doré, will be a nice problem for the critics … [and] for the fortunate mortals who can be expected to become their purchasers. … the conception of Don Quixote’s personal appearance is a vulgar one, of which we speedily grow tired. If is assumed that he cannot be made ridiculous enough by a gaunt figure or a dismal countenance unless his bearing and attitude are made positively clumsy and lubberly.”
“There have recently been published two new editions of Don Quixote of the class styled “sumptuous,” writes a critic for The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature (August 1868). “One is a reprint of one of the worst translations in the English language and the other is in Spanish. The first is illustrated by M. Gustave Doré who, if anything, understands his author even less than the translator…”
