Miguel de Cervantes

1
Miguel de Cervantes

• 1547-1616

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Cervantes

• Born in Alcala de Henares, near Madrid
• Enlisted in Spanish fleet, fought valiantly, was
  captured by pirates on the way home and held as a
  slave for high ransom (remember this for Hamlet).
  After 5 years, bout out by viceroy of Algiers
  out of admiration.
• Wrote 20-30 plays and a pastoral romance

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Cervantes

• Worked for the navy in supply service but was
  imprisoned for irregularities in his
  administration.
• Later served as tax collector for Granada but
  dismissed from govt in 1597
• 1604 published Don Quixote Part I, and it was so
  popular that someone wrote a false sequel, so
  Cervantes then wrote his own, Part II, published
  in 1615.

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Don Quixote

• Satire of chivalric romance, the pulp fiction of
  his time
• Uses parody and caricature, but in a unique way,
  with a main character who lives in Cervantess
  present but is infatuated with medieval romance
  and chivalry he lives in the real world but
  lives by the standards of fantasy.

Visions of Don Quixote by Octavio Ocampo
http//gallery4collectors.com/visionsofquixote.htm
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Don Quixote

• With Don Quixote, Cervantes creates the modern
  novel.
• Manages to show positive as well as negative
  aspects of chivalry and romance
• Ridiculous situations counterbalanced by serious
  moral messages

Monument to Don Quixote and Dulcinea in El
Toboso, Castile-La Mancha, Spain
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Quixote