The Story of Don Quixote and his squire Sancho Panza; by M. Jones, author of “The Black Prince” and “Historical Tales”. London: George Routledge and sons, 1875. Classmark: Waddleton.d.9.2149

In the late 19^th century juvenile literature was functional to shaping children’s attitudes by transmitting society’s good values. Thus, different genres were aimed separately at boys or girls. Social expectations for boys required them to be rulers, breadwinners, active at work and in the public sphere. Emotional life (in the form of novels) was discouraged for them, adventure stories being the only fictional works thought appropriate for them at the time.

Don Quixote fitted the bill very well. In the romantically depicted scene of “the Knight of the Sorrowful Figure” solemnly doing penance owing to Dulcinea’s disdain (chromolithographed copy after Gilbert’s illustration for London: G. Routledge & Sons, 1866), one could well recall the adaptor’s invitation, to “discern nobility of character, however disguised by oddity or eccentricity”.