...And here in lies its [Don Quixote] chief claim to greatness, that it seems to have been written not for one country nor for one age alone, but, to give delight to all mankind. "It is our joyfullest modern book."

In its original form, however, it is a bulky work, dismaying the present-day reader by its vastness. For it fills more than thousand closely printed pages, and the story itself is interrupted and encumbered by episodes and tedious passages which are no longer interesting and which we have no time to read. The person who would get at the kernel of this famous book and know something of its plan and its literary worth, must either struggle through many pages of tiresome details and unnecessary digressions, or he must resort to much ingenious skipping. In these days of many books and hasty reading, it is scarcely possible that any person should read the whole of Don Quixote it its original form. And yet no scholar can afford to be ignorant of a work so famous and so enjoyable.

These considerations have led to the preparation of the present small volume. It is not so much an abridgement of the great book by Cervantes as it is a rewriting of some of its most interesting parts. While very much of the work has necessarily been omitted, the various adventures are so related as to form a continuous narrative; and in every way an effort is made to give a clear idea of the manner and content of the original. Although Cervantes certainly had no thought of writing a story for children, there are many passages in Dox Quixote which appeal particularly to young readers; and it is hoped that this adaptation of such passages will serve a useful purpose in awakening a desire to become further acquainted with that great world's classic.

From the Introductory Note