Miguel de Cervantes Works & Literature

About Miguel de Cervantes

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was born at Alcalá de Henares, Spain into an impoverished family on what was probably September 29, 1547. In 1570 he enlisted in the Spanish army and embarked on a journey which would prove a mixed blessing. In the battle of Lepanto in 1571, he received a crippling shot to his left hand which rendered it lastingly useless. On his way back to Spain in 1575, he was captured by Barbary pirates and sold as a slave to the viceroy of Algiers. His overpriced ransom in 1580 brought about financial ruin for himself and his family. During the years of his primary residency in Seville, Cervantes declared bankruptcy and was temporarily excommunicated. He was imprisoned once in 1597 and a second time in 1602 for incongruities in his finances. His first work, La Galatea (1585) and his several attempts at drama received little attention, however, while in the prison of Argamasilla, in La Mancha Cervantes developed the idea for his most well-known work, Don Quixote. Considered to be the first modern European novel and one of the best novels of the western world, Don Quixote revolutionized the use of common speech in literature. A satirical comedy on the romance of chivalry, it expertly illuminates appealing aspects of human nature with the ridiculous example of the delusional Quixote. The success of Don Quixote brought Cervantes recognition and allowed him to lead a comfortable life. In 1606, Cervantes took up permanent residence in Madrid where he died on April 23, 1616.

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