Many critics regard Cervantes's Don Quixote as the greatest literary influence on British writing. Its impact was immense, from 17th-century plays be Fletcher, Massinger and Beaumont, through the great 18th-century novels of Fielding, Smollett, Sterne, and Lennox, and on into contemporary works, 20th-century critics, fascinated by Don Quixote, were moved to write what we now see as the classical works of Cervantes scholarship. The contributors to this volume now offer a comprehensive and innovative picture of this reception history, discussing the English translations of Cervantes's works, the literary genres which developed in his shadow, and the best-known authors who consciously emulated him. Cervantes emerges as perhaps the greatest outside influence on English literature since the Renaissance. Book jacket.
