F. J. Bertuch's Pioneering Translation (1775-77) of Don Quixote

The fame of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra s Don Quixote, relating the adventures of the eccentric knight and his rustic squire, quickly spread across Europe. This work discusses the reception of Don Quixote in the 17th and 18th centuries; the life of the author F. J. Bertuch; his seminal translation of Cervantes s Parts I and II (1605, 1615) and Alonso de Avellaneda s 1614 Part II; the artist Daniel Chodowiecki and his illustrations for Bertuch s first and second editions; and the Romantics translation theory, which differed substantially from Bertuch s Enlightenment-influenced translation theory. Various aspects of Bertuch s translation are also examined, e.g. how he foreignizes and/or domesticates names, money, foods, etc.; deals with the novel s religious references, profanities and vulgarities; and treats Cervantes s unique sentence structure. Included in this book are little known reviews of Bertuch s and Chodowiecki s works and also new information that corrects earlier published remarks about Bertuch and his translation. This work should be of interest to German scholars and those involved in Cervantine studies, translation theory, and 18th-century German literature.