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Note to the Reader

The stories in this book were originally told by an author named Miguel Cervantes, and were first published more than 400 years ago. Cervantes lived in Spain, and wrote his book telling these stories in Spanish. Over the years, a number of writers have translated the stories into English. However, many of the names in the book are still written in Spanish. I will suggest a way to pronounce these names, so as you read the story, you will know how they sound.

 The name of the Spanish gentleman in this story is Don Quixote. ‘Quixote’ is pronounced kē-hōˈ-tē.

 His horse is named ‘Rocinante’, which is pronounced rōs-ē-nänˈ-tē.

 ‘La Mancha’ is the name of the small town in Spain where Don Quixote lived, and is pronounced lä mänˈ-chä.

 The name of the woman to whom Don Quixote dedicates all his adventures is Dulcinea, and is pronounced dull-sē-nāˈ-ah.

 The town in which Dulcinea lives is Toboso, pronounced tō-bōˈ-sō.

Finally, I would like to explain what the word ‘Don’ means in Spanish. In English, we often refer to someone who has become a knight as ‘Sir’—as is ‘Sir Lancelot’ or ‘Sir Galahad’. The ‘Sir’ is not really part of their name—it just means that they have become a knight.

In Spanish, it is typical to refer to someone who has become a knight as ‘Don’, as in ‘Don Quixote’. Again, ‘Don’ is not really part of the knight’s name. However, as you will see when you read this story, our hero, Sandy Preston, gets a bit confused when he first meets Don Quixote about what the knight’s name actually is.