Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) was the Spanish author of Don Quixote, the story of a country gentleman who reads so many romances of chivalry that he sets out to be a knight-errant with his squire Sancho Panza. Often called the first modern novel, it is one of the most translated books in the world. Cervantes himself led an adventurous life as a soldier and captive.
Soldier and captive
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was born in 1547 at Alcalá de Henares, near Madrid, the son of a poor barber-surgeon. Little is known of his education. Around 1569 he went to Italy, in the service of a cardinal, then enlisted as a soldier.
In 1571 he fought at the naval battle of Lepanto against the Ottoman fleet, where he was wounded and lost the use of his left hand. In 1575, on his way back to Spain, his ship was captured by Barbary corsairs, and he spent five years as a captive in Algiers, attempting to escape four times, until he was ransomed in 1580.
Years of hardship
Back in Spain, Cervantes wrote plays and a pastoral novel, La Galatea (1585), without much success. He worked as a purchasing agent for the Spanish Armada and as a tax collector in Andalusia, jobs that brought him trouble: he was excommunicated for requisitioning church grain and imprisoned for irregularities in his accounts.
According to his own prologue, Don Quixote was conceived in a prison, probably in Seville around 1597. The first part was published in Madrid in 1605 and was an immediate popular success, quickly translated into English and French.
Don Quixote and the last years
In 1613 he published the Exemplary Novels, a collection of short stories. In 1614 an anonymous writer under the name Avellaneda published a false second part of Don Quixote, which spurred Cervantes to finish his own, published in 1615, in which his characters mock the impostor.
Cervantes died in Madrid in April 1616, a few days after completing his last novel, Persiles and Sigismunda. He was buried in the convent of the Trinitarian nuns; in 2015, researchers announced that they had found remains probably belonging to him.
Anecdotes
The one-handed man of Lepanto
Cervantes was nicknamed el manco de Lepanto, the one-handed man of Lepanto, although his left hand was not amputated but paralysed by a gunshot wound. He was proud of his wound, writing that he had received it on the most glorious occasion that past or present ages had seen.
The same date as Shakespeare
Cervantes and Shakespeare are often said to have died on the same day, 23 April 1616, the date UNESCO chose for World Book Day. In fact Spain used the Gregorian calendar and England the Julian, so Shakespeare died ten days later; and Cervantes probably died on the 22nd.
Frequently asked questions
What is Don Quixote about?
A country gentleman from La Mancha who, having read too many romances of chivalry, imagines himself a knight-errant and sets out on adventures with his squire Sancho Panza, mistaking windmills for giants and inns for castles.
When was Don Quixote published?
In two parts, in 1605 and 1615, in Madrid.
Which translation of Don Quixote is quoted on Guesseo?
The translations of John Ormsby (1885) and Charles Jervas (1742).