BIOGRAPHY CERVANTES – Famous Spanish writer, Miguel de Cervantès is particularly known for his main work, Don Quixote de la Mancha, considered the first modern novel in literary history.
Short biography of Miguel de Cervantes – Born September 29, 1547 in Alcazar de San Juan and died April 23, 1616 in Madrid, Spain, Miguel de Cervantes (his full name Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra) comes from a modest family. He first studied in Madrid. His taste for adventure then led him to join the Spanish army in Naples, in which he took part in the Battle of Lepanto. It was there that he lost his left hand and now saw himself nicknamed the “Lepanto penguin”. After a few years, he decides to return to his country of origin, but is captured by Turks from Algiers. He must then wait five years in Algeria before his ransom is paid by his relatives.
On his return to Spain, he began to write poems and plays, then got married. He was then given a position as an Invincible Armada supplier, before he was appointed tax collector. Accused of embezzlement, he was arrested and put in cell several times. All his adventures have nourished in him an overflowing imagination which leads him to create the famous Don Quixote of La Mancha, published in 1605 for the first part and 1615 for the second. Success was not long in coming and a few years later, Cervantes released his New copies (1613). In his last year, he got down to writing the Works of Persilès and Sigismonde, posthumous work published in 1617.
In 1605 the author published the first part of Don Quixote today considered one of the most important novels in world literature and as the first modern novel. The character of Don Quixote is none other than a man of a certain age, in search of justice and truth. Obsessed with books of chivalry, he decides to become knight errant and to roam Spain in order to protect the weak and defend the oppressed. Accompanied by his very sensible squire, Sancho Pança, he sets off to face the world. But his idealistic illusions veil the truth from him, despite the incessant warnings of his companion. Subsequently, Don Quixote is more and more confronted with reality and ends up giving up his chivalrous ambitions. The second part of Cervantes’ work will be published in 1615 and the character will cross the centuries through various reinterpretations. Perfect illustration of a Spain then without light, the work of Cervantes mockery the taste of the inhabitants for the chivalrous story and heroism. A true parody novel, the author in fact criticizes the medieval customs and social structures of a rigid Spanish society seen as absurd.
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