With the publication of El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, Cervantes became famous around the world. ![]() During one such jail term in 1597 he conceived of the story that became Don Quixote. When such a transaction went bad, he was investigated. Since his salary was often late, he made money by lending out his tax collections at interest. He became a commissary agent, then a tax collector. In 1584, he married a young woman, Catalina de Salazar y Palacios. His only child, Isabel de Saavedra, was the result of an affair with an actress named Ana Franca de Rojas. He wrote poems, but that brought in little money. He was unsuccessful as a playwright, because he was unable to compete with the monopoly of Lope de Vega. Despite his fame, he was without a job and his family was destitute. Now free, he returned to Spain a great hero. Finally, in 1580, Trinitarian friars paid his high ransom, probably collected from family and friends. He tried unsuccessfully to lead them in several escapes. Cervantes, as is recorded in the Informacion (a document based on eyewitness testimony to refute his enemies and avoid the Spanish Inquisition), kept up the spirits of his fellow hostages. Returning to Spain in 1575, he was captured by Algerian corsairs.Ĭervantes fetched a high price for his captors. In 1572, he joined Don Juan's campaign to fight at Navarino, Corfu, and Tunis. During this battle, he received two bullets to the chest and one to his left hand, which left him permanently disabled. In 1571 he enlisted in the Spanish militia to fight for Don Juan of Austria against the Ottoman-Turks at Lepanto. In Rome, Cervantes served the Cardinal-elect Giulio Acquaviva. Cervantes then traveled to Italy, possibly as a result of a duel with Don Antonio Sigura. In 1569, his teacher, López de Hoyos, published four of his poems in Madrid. It is assumed that Cervantes's education was minimal although he does seem to have received some education from the Jesuits in Seville. Little is known about his early childhood, other than that it was an itinerant existence his father, a barber-surgeon, was constantly moving his family from town to town to find work. Author BiographyĬervantes was born in Alcalé de Henares on September 19, 1547. This dynamic duo has pro-vided readers throughout the centuries with humorous, yet poignant, chivalric tales. Along the way, he acquires a sidekick, Sancho, who helps Don Quixote in hopes of getting rich. Instead, Don Quixote deals with windmills, bedclothes, and much disappointment. He longs to resurrect this world he has long read of: chivalry, battles with giants and evil knights, the rescue of virtuous maidens. In both parts of the novel, Don Quixote lives in a world created in his imagination, which had been fueled by his obsession with chivalric tales. Part I of Don Quixote's story appeared in 1605 and was complemented ten years later-a year after the usurper, Avellaneda, published a false se-quel-by Part II. ![]() Cervantes not only created one of the greatest comic figures of world literature, but with his realist and humanist techniques, he originated, some critics assert, the modern novel. The original story, El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, was immediately popular-with six editions in 1605 alone-and has never lost its prominence. Don Quixote was immediately embraced by his countrymen it is a testament to the novel and Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra's vivid characterization that the character of Don Quixote is still utilized to mock politicians and satirize the self-righteous. These eccentric characters are as famous as Sinbad, Tarzan, Odysseus, Hamlet, or Superman. It was the history of Don Quixote, the tall, gaunt knight-errant astride his fallible steed, with his potbellied, illiterate squire, Sancho Panza. In 1605 a novel appeared that has become one of the most beloved stories of European literature.
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