So you'd like to read the Quijote, but hesitate because it's so long? Nothing says you have to read the whole thing to enjoy it. Cervantes wrote a book, not a homework assignment.
Follow the dog. Impatient with irrelevancies (Book I is full of them) she earmarked 10 chapters from Book I and 15 chapters from Book II that will give you a good idea of what Don Quijote is all about. Or you can read the whole thing, because it's all here: both Book I and Book II in both Spanish and English. The long paragraphs of the original are broken into shorter paragraphs that fit the Spanish and English onto the screen of a Kindle, making it easy to look up an unknown Spanish word or expression.
The English text is a rework of the 1885 Ormsby translation. Noted for its accuracy, it's also noted for following the Spanish text too closely, creating odd and clumsy sentences in English. These have been clarified, vocabulary has been updated for modern understanding, and errors where found have been corrected. (Nobody's perfect, but Ormsby came pretty close.) The emphasis throughout was on creating an accurate rendering of the Spanish in a readable format.
If you're looking for a self-important, deluxe edition of the Quijote in leather, you won't find it here. But you will find extras like an index to refranes (proverbs), indices to poetry and letters, and much more—all hyperlinked to their location in the book, all designed to help you enjoy Cervantes' masterpiece. Our somewhat irreverent presentation has one primary goal: format the book so people can read it. If you want to give the Spanish a try, you'll be surprised at how easy it is—until it becomes impossible—but that's where the English translation comes into play. Language changes over 400 years, or 270 years in the case of Mr Ormsby, who was closer in time to Cervantes than we are. Like any good translator, he sometimes had to guess, but comparing the two texts, you'll find that his guesses were pretty good.
The Quijote is satire. Our presentation is satirical, and our advice is simple: read the book until you grow tired of it, and get on with your life. Es ist an der Zeit.