Cervantes
Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra is somewhat of an enigma. Whether or not he intended to do more than just criticize those "vain and empty books of chivalry,” his novel El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, or Don Quixote, seems to have actually put an end to the long spell cast by chivalric romance novels. Cervantes’ novel that began as a humorous, tongue-in-cheek spoof gradually became a rather serious exploration of the human condition. Even before the second part was published, the first was popular enough to be almost immediately translated into English. It became the most read novel in Europe for the next 200 years. However, Cervantes died just two years after the book was finished. Little did he realize how his desire to create a parody—actually a humorously disguised social commentary—mocking the concept of chivalry, would actually change the world of literature, perhaps exactly as he had hoped for, plus much more. According to Edith Grossman, who wrote the most highly regarded English translation,
“One reason for the exalted position [Don Quixote] occupies is that Cervante’s book contains within itself, in germ or full-blown, practically every imaginative technique and device used by subsequent fiction writers to engage their readers and construct their works.”
Don Quixote is “the book that … explored … for the first time, the blurred and shifting frontiers between fact and fiction, imagination and history, perceptions and physical reality, [and] that set the stage for all … serious discussions of history and nature of the novel.”
In other words, Cervantes didn’t just put an end to the 400-year-long era of chivalric novels, he also unknowingly began the era of the modern novel—now 400 years long and going strong.
Over the centuries, accounts of Cervantes’ life have intertwined fact and fiction, truth and myth. One of the very few personal accounts of him is from his sister who said, “…he writes and does business and, because of his good ability, has many friends.” His life began in Alcalá de Henares, Spain in 1547. The middle of seven children, little is known of his family except that his father was a surgeon and they had few resources. As a soldier, Cervantes was wounded by an arquebus shot. Later he was taken prisoner by the Algerian corsairs and spent five years enslaved before being ransomed by the Trinitarians. While enslaved, he wrote his first work. In 1584, he married a woman 22 years younger than he. This was his only marriage, although he already had a daughter, his only child. He continued writing both plays and novels, as well as traveling around southern Spain as a tax collector. In 1597, he was jailed for embezzlement and unpaid debts. Jailed again in 1603 when a corpse was found on his doorstep, he was freed due to lack of evidence as to his role. When published in 1605, the first part of Don Quixote reestablished him as a literary figure. Despite many personal challenges, he continued to write and published a book a year in 1613, 1614 and two in 1615, including the second part of Don Quixote. This was immediately after another writer published his own sequel to the first part. Cervantes died April 23, 1616, just 3 days after completing his last book. In Spain, April 23 is now known as the "Dia del libro," Day of the Book. Cervantes was a contemporary of another legendary writer— Shakespeare. Many say there have never been any writers to equal them, before or since. Although Shakespeare wrote works that didn’t directly reveal his own personality, Cervantes is so obviously interwoven with his story that there almost seem to be three main characters: Alonso Quixano (Don Quixote), Sancho Panza (servant), and Cervantes himself. In fact, several of Don Quixote’s adventures are taken directly from Cervantes’ own experiences. Nevertheless, nearly 400 years later, the quest for the real person and true story of this author, whose personal qualities are neither known nor any longer knowable; who has only one work that’s survived the test of time; yet who’s transformed the world of writing forever, is best described by Professor Jean Canavaggio, Madrid, Spain:
It appears “he was an obscure participant in a heroic adventure, a lucid observer of a time of doubt and crisis, and a very personal interpreter of Spain at a crucial moment in its history, …”
“. . . we are looking for the missing [personality] which we assign to the secret narrator hidden behind [Cervantes’] masks, this absent one who is always present, whose voice is his alone and, through the magic of his writing, is always recognizable even among a thousand others.”
Regardless of the many mysteries about Cervantes, it’s obvious he had exceptional abilities as a writer and loved to play with language. Grossman says, “… his writing is a marvel: it gives off sparks and flows like honey.” He “delighted in accumulating synonyms, especially descriptive ones, within the same phrase.” The reader who approaches this book for the humor, as well as the insight into history and human nature, will eagerly await the next mind-bending coincidence, the next variation on the structure of Don Q/s adventures, the next incomparable conversation between the knight and his squire.” Professor Harold Bloom sums up the impact of Cervantes’ Don Quixote by saying, “…this great book contains within itself all the novels that have followed in its sublime wake.” In other words, it’s the most influential novel ever written.