Don Quixote, Part II (1615)

A critical commentary on the major episodes of Don Quixote Part Two, this chapter shows how the pivotal episode of Dulcinea’s alleged enchantment (DQ II. 10) brings about a transformation in the character of each of the protagonists and in the nature of their relations, as well as providing a new unifying principle for the episodic narrative. Cervantes’s parody of the books of chivalry reaches its climax at the Duke’s palace, where an inversion occurs in the relationship between Don Quixote and Sancho Panza that will lead to the decline and fall of the would-be hero. In this second part, Cervantes’s modulations of comedy and pathos fashion the paradoxical madness of the Knight of La Mancha into an unprecedented literary phenomenon that would come to resonate powerfully with modern readers.

Captivity in Cervantes

Cervantes’s obsession with freedom and captivity evokes his long incarceration in Algiers (1575–80). In effect, his capture by Barbary corsairs in 1575 and the five years he spent in Algiers left an indelible impression on his fiction. From the first works written after his liberation, such as his play El trato de Argel (c. 1581–3) and his novel La Galatea (1585), to his posthumous book Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda (1617), the story of this traumatic experience continuously resonates throughout his work. The motif of captivity characterizes Cervantes’s autobiographical narrative, La historia del cautivo, interpolated in Don Quixote I.39–41, as well as two of his novellas. Concurrently, his Barbary plays turn around the theme of captivity suffered by Christians in Ottoman territories during the early modern period.

Cervantes on Screen

April 2016 marked the four-hundredth anniversary of the deaths of both Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare, with a noticeable lack of attention paid to the former in relation to the latter, even in Spain. A relative lack of film adaptations of Cervantes’s works has been construed as a symptom and cause of the Spaniard’s lack of visibility at home and abroad. This chapter probes this assertion and explores the dialectic between commemorative culture and Spanish screen fictions based on the life and works of Cervantes. Included are discussions of Francoist appropriations of the symbolism of Cervantes in Spanish national heritage, and the attempts to reappropriate those same images in the democratic era through film.

First Writings for the Stage (1580s)

In the 1580s, Cervantes turned to writing for the stage in pursuit of a career as a professional playwright, capitalizing on the popularity of the public theatres and the lucrative trade it produced. However, after a modicum of success his career was soon thwarted by the comedia nueva and the advent of Lope de Vega in the late-1580s would take that obsession to a national level. This chapter explores the first stage of Cervantes’s writing career prior to this new type of play establishing a monopoly on the tastes of the paying public.

Don Quixote, Part I (1605)

When it first appeared in 1605, Cervantes’s great novel Don Quixote de la Mancha became an international sensation. This chapter follows the chronology of the plot in a critical manner providing the reader with important insight into why Don Quixote has become the second best-selling book of all time. Including the famous scenes of the windmill, the liquidation of Don Quixote’s library, the funeral of Grisóstomo and redemption of Marcela, Ginés de Pasamonte and the galley slaves, El curioso impertinente, the famous tale of Cardenio the star-crossed lover, and a commentary on the role of drama and novels of chivalry in society, Don Quixote, Part One sets the hero and his trusty country squire against the world at large. This chapter explores its deep cultural significance and answers the question of whether or not it is merely a ‘funny book’.

Cervantine Criticism since 2000 and into the Future

The past two decades have seen an explosion in Cervantes scholarship. Indeed, it would perhaps not be an exaggeration to suggest that the last twenty years arguably represent the Golden Age of Cervantes criticism: slightly more than half of scholarly works written since 1888 have been published during the last two decades. In other words, during the last twenty years, the body of Cervantes knowledge has more than doubled, greatly expanding our variety of critical perspectives along the way. This chapter discusses the ‘across the centuries’ trend resulting from the various anniversary celebrations related to Cervantes, the ‘Cervantes and the Americas’ collections, Cervantes’s treatment of Islam, and the modernity of the novel, among other trends that have expanded Cervantine criticism since the turn of the current century.

Windmills of Reality, Giants of the Imagination

With the arrival of a princeps edition of the 1605 Quixote in the same year of its printing, the British public developed an immediate fascination with the novel. Literary references and adaptations to the book appeared as early as 1607, well before the first published translation into English in 1612. From Shakespeare to Fletcher, from Milton to Dickens, and down to the present day, the antics of Don Quixote and Sancho have become assimilated into British culture. This chapter discusses the most significant influences of Cervantes’s writings in British society since their inception into the British Isles.

Cervantes and Other Literary Circles

As a continuation of an understanding of Cervantes’s rapport with other well-known writers of his day, this chapter explores the world of the literary academies, in which he interacted with aristocrats, court officials, soldiers, preachers, lawyers, playwrights, and theatre impresarios, among many others. Firstly, it offers a brief introduction into the academies that Cervantes knew and into the literary contests in which he participated by looking at Cervantes’s own satirical remarks throughout his work. Secondly, it adopts a chronological approach and considers Cervantes’s attendance of several academies in Seville and Madrid. His comments and allusions to the members of these literary circles, as made in works like the ‘Canto de Calíope’ [Song of Calíope] and the Viaje del Parnaso, allow us an appreciation of the relationship he maintained with his peers and patrons, and how these contributed to or impinged upon his work.

Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda

Published posthumously, Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda: Historia setentrional (1617) was the triumphant capstone to a remarkable run of works written, revised, or concluded in the wake of the first part of Don Quixote (1605). Cervantes would leave his inventive stamp on every major genre of literary entertainment then fashionable: myriad verse forms, drama, pastoral and chivalric novels, the novella, the Menippean satirical dream, and the Heliodoran adventure novel, along with others as interpolated tale, incident, or passing characterization. The last four years of his life, which saw a rapid succession of publications, suggest a veteran writer used to taking his time but now acutely aware it was running out. Proud of the 1605 Quixote’s wild popularity, Cervantes was also anxious to shape his literary legacy so that it would not be swallowed up by its run-away success.

Cervantes’s Life

Chapter 1 provides a detailed account of Cervantes’s life story addressing his humble beginnings, his travels, his military service—notably his participation in the battle of Lepanto, his captivity, his forays into writing for the stage, his various professions, and finally his stint as a professional writer. Special attention is given to Cervantes’s creation of Don Quixote, Parts I and II, and to the false second part of his great work, published under the pseudonym Avellaneda. Finally, the chapter follows Cervantes through his last days and his death in 1616. Relying on decades of research and internationally acclaimed biographies of the author of Don Quixote, Canavaggio contributes an excellent building block for the volume.