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Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 1978. 550 g; XII, 290 pages, last five pages blank (intentionally), includes appendix, bibliography, index. In illustrated dustwrapper. Slight dustiness to the top edge of the text block, and a little rubbing to the base edge of the dust jacket. A digital image can be provided to help assess condition. "Don Quixote, the greatest monument of Spanish literature, has been widely read and discussed outside Spain. Interpreted before 1800 as a burlesque of chivalric romances, and implicitly described as such by Cervantes himself, it was given a sentimentalised and seriously philosophical interpretation by the German Romantics. Dr Close is essentially concerned with the question why this arm historical and subjective reading of the novel prevailed, first in Europe, penny and Spain. He examines the stages by which, from 1860, it progressively supplanted in Spain the hitherto dominant neo-classical interpretation, and shows how this process kept pace with increasing identification with movements of intellectual history, anaesthetics, literary criticism and scholarship in Europe. He clarifies the complex reasons which have led Spaniards to see Don Quixote as a symbol of their cultural history and identity, and reveals how preoccupation with Spain's decadence has coloured the interpretation of the National classic by leading Spanish critics, scholars, and philosophers. -- front fold over blurb. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Literary Criticism.