The 1605 and 1615 parts should not be treated as one original publication date. Modern combined editions bring together writing produced at different moments in Cervantes’s career.

Cervantes was baptized on 9 October 1547; the commonly given September birthday is conjectural. His death on 22 April 1616 and burial the following day are also distinct events.

The conversations between Don Quixote and Sancho are as important as the adventures. The knight’s literary ideals and Sancho’s demands for wages, food and a promised governorship repeatedly bring different versions of the world into contact. Sancho is not merely there to supply a sensible answer: his own hopes help to keep the journey going. Listen for the moments when argument becomes affection, bargaining or performance.

Part II adds a further complication: characters know about the earlier printed adventures. Reading and reputation become events inside the fiction, rather than background information supplied by an editor. Start with the 1605 part and continue to the 1615 part in order; the second depends on that prior relationship between the pair and their readers. A selection of famous incidents can be enjoyable, but it loses the cumulative changes in how the protagonists understand one another.

The Spanish national library’s collection distinguishes original editions, translations, abridgements, school editions and adaptations. Check which of these a volume actually contains before comparing its length with another. For English readers, the translator and whether both parts are complete are more useful identifiers than cover wording such as ‘classic edition’. The dates 1605 and 1615 belong to the original parts; a modern copyright date identifies a particular edition or translation.