In 2003 our Western world was favored with the publication of Edith Grossman’s outstanding English translation of Don Quixote. Terry Castle, in her review of the book (The Atlantic Monthly, Jan./Feb. ’04, pp. 185f.), pointed out that the novel was ground-breaking when it was first published in 1605. It showed Don Quixote and his sidekick Sancho Panza living in a resolutely ordinary world.
Resolutely ordinary. There was nothing magical about it at all. There were no giants, dragons, wizards, sorcerers, enchanters, or spells anywhere. No creatures of mixed species. No hocus-pocus.
