400th Anniversary of the Death of Cervantes
April 21, 2016
Tomorrow, April 22, is the 400th anniversary of the death of Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616). For more than those 400 years, he has been considered the most important figure in Spanish literature. And his novel Don Quixote ranks as the single greatest work in Spanish literature and one of the greatest novels written in any language. Some experts consider it to be the first classic novel.
Before Cervantes became a writer, he led a life of high adventure. In 1570, he became a soldier in a Spanish infantry regiment stationed in Naples, Italy. His regiment participated in a famous sea battle against the Turks in 1571 at Lepanto (near Greece). During the battle, Cervantes received an injury that crippled his left hand. On his way back to Spain after completing his military service, Cervantes was captured by Turks and sold into slavery in Algiers with his brother Rodrigo. Five years later, Cervantes was ransomed and returned to Spain.
Cervantes did not publish his first book, a romance called La Galatea, until 1585. During the 1580’s, he claimed to have written 20 to 30 plays, but only two have survived. The author exploded onto the literary scene with the publication of the first part of Don Quixote in 1605. The book was immediately successful. Although that success did not make Cervantes a rich man, it elevated him to a place among the leading men of letters of his day.
In 1615, Cervantes completed the second part of Don Quixote. Also in that year, he published a collection of comic plays. He ended his writing career with another romance, Persiles and Sigismunda, which was published in 1617, after his death. Most scholars believe that Cervantes died on April 22, 1616, though some believe his death date was April 23.
Cervantes intended Don Quixote to be a comic novel satirizing the romances of chivalry popular at the time. The novel describes the adventures of an elderly country gentleman named Alonso Quijano, who lives in the province of La Mancha. Quijano’s mind is overwhelmed by the stories of chivalry he reads. He decides to leave his home, accompanied by his squire, Sancho Panza, to right the wrongs of the world, taking the name Don Quixote de la Mancha.
During his travels, Quixote’s fevered imagination blinds him to the realities of the world. He confuses windmills with giants and flocks of sheep with armies. Finally, disillusioned, he returns to La Mancha and shortly before his death, he renounces books of chivalry.
Scholars have interpreted Don Quixote in several ways. It has been called the story of an idealist defeated by a materialistic world. The novel has also been viewed as an attack on the Roman Catholic Church in Spain and on Spanish politics. Other critics claim that Quixote the idealist and Sancho Panza the realist symbolize two sides of the Spanish character. The vivid depictions of the various social classes make the novel a panoramic portrait of Spanish life in the 1600’s. By the 1700’s, Don Quixote was recognized as a masterpiece. It has had a major influence on the development of the novel to the present day.
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