Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) has been called the first modern novelist, on the basis of Don Quixote, a sprawling, comic epic that is among the most beloved works in the Spanish language.
The book, which appeared in two volumes in 1605 and 1615, was innovative for its wry humor, frequent moral ambiguity, and psychological insights. Cervantes was one of the first Western authors to delve into the inner emotions of his characters instead of simply relating a series of events.
Cervantes was born in Alcala de Henares, just outside of Madrid, and enlisted in the Spanish army in 1570. In the Battle of Lepanto, a 1571 naval clash between the Ottoman Empire and a combined Spanish-Venetian fleet, he suffered injuries that rendered his left hand useless for the rest of his life. The battle was a turning point in European history, and his role in it remained a source of pride for Cervantes.
In 1575, after a long recovery from his war wounds, a boat Cervantes was traveling in was attacked by corsairs, and he was taken captive. He spent the next five years as a slave in Algeria until his family raised enough money to pay his ransom.
Beginning his literary career, Cervantes published his first work, La Galatea, in 1585. He later worked as a tax collector, and he was imprisoned for three years beginning in 1597 for bookkeeping irregularities.
Cervantes began writing Don Quixote while in prison. The book follows the adventures of an elderly man named Don Quixote of La Mancha, who decides to become a heroic knight after reading too many chivalric novels. Aided by his befuddled sidekick, Sancho Panza, Don Quixote rides through the countryside seeking maidens to save, monsters to slay, and wrongs to right. While obviously delusional, Don Quixote ultimately emerges as a sympathetic, even tragic figure.
The book was enormously popular, but was widely plagiarized and spawned dozens of unauthorized “sequels.” Cervantes published a real sequel in 1615—along with an introduction lambasting the copycats—and died the next year at age sixty-eight.
ADDITIONAL FACTS
- La Mancha is a region of Spain just south of Madrid.
- Spain’s premier literary award is known as the Cervantes Prize. Past recipients include Argentinean short-story writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986), and Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa (1936–).
- In 2002, a poll of world novelists placed Don Quixote atop the list of the greatest books of all time, beating runner-up In Search of Lost Time, by Marcel Proust (1871–1922).
