It was born thanks to the writer Miguel de Cervantes. Now the parody romance of chivalry is a monument of world literature, but at one time the book did a disservice to its author - de Cervantes was persecuted for libel and even threatened with death.

Childhood and youth

Miguel de Cervantes was born on September 29, 1547 in the Spanish city of Alcala de Henares. Half a month later, on October 9, an entry appeared in the baptismal register of the parish church of Santa Maria la Mayor:

“Miguel, son of Rodrigo de Cervantes and his wife Leonor, was baptized; his godfathers were Juan Pardo; the ceremony was performed by the Rev. Bartolomé Serrano.”

It is a mistake to believe that the boy received the famous name Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra at birth. In fact, Saavedra appeared already at a conscious age, presumably as a reference to the name of the Chilean commune where the Cervantes family came from.

Father Rodrigo, a native of Galicia, worked as a barber, “opening blood.” On duty, he set bones, performed bloodletting, and attended to “minor medical needs.” Miguel's mother, Leonor de Cortinas, is the daughter of a bankrupt nobleman who was sold into marriage in 1543.

In addition to the future author of Don Quixote, the Cervantes family raised 6 children: Andres (b. 1543), Andrea (b. 1544), Louise (b. 1546), Rodrigo (b. 1550) , Magdalena (b. 1554) and Juan. The latter is known only thanks to the father's will.

It is believed that as a child, Miguel was often transported around the country and then sent to the Imperial School in Madrid, a Jesuit school for boys. As evidence of this fact, they cite laudatory reviews of the Order of the Roman Catholic Church in the “Story about a Conversation between Dogs” from the Edifying Stories. A different point of view - Miguel studied at the University of Salamanca. Both versions are called into question.

At the age of 22, de Cervantes unwittingly found himself in a street fight, and a certain Antonio de Sigura suffered at his hands. It is said that fear of arrest prompted Miguel to leave his native Spain. Italy became my new home - a country that is friendly to talented, ambitious young people.

In Rome, de Cervantes discovered the fine arts, architecture, and poetry of the Renaissance. In his literary works, connoisseurs later saw references to Italian folklore, a parody of many national writers.

Military service

In 1570, de Cervantes was enlisted in the Spanish Marine Regiment Infantería de Marina, which was stationed in Naples (then the city was Spanish territory). A year passed before the young man was called to battle. In September 1571, Miguel sailed to the Gulf of Patras, where the Battle of Lepanto took place on October 7 between the Holy League and the Ottoman Empire.

When the battle was ripe, Miguel de Cervantes lay in a fever. Despite his state of health, the young man demanded to be allowed to fight, saying that he would rather die for his God and king than be sheltered by his comrades in the cabin. The future writer received three gunshot wounds - two in the chest and one in the left arm; the last bullet actually left de Cervantes one-armed. In his first work, Galatea, referring to the early success of Don Quixote, he wrote:

“I lost the movement of my left hand for the glory of my right.”

It took de Cervantes six months to recover; in 1572 he returned to duty. Over the next 3 years, the man stayed mainly in Naples, occasionally making expeditions to the islands of Corfu and Navarino. Miguel witnessed the battle for La Goulette, the former capital of Tunisia, and the fall of this state.

In the autumn of 1575, de Cervantes sailed from Naples to Barcelona with letters of introduction for the King of Spain. In them, the regiment commander praised the soldier’s merits and offered to promote him. Fate decreed otherwise: on the morning of September 26, the corsairs boarded de Cervantes’s ship.

The future writer and, according to some evidence, his brother Rodrigo were taken to Algeria (then the center of the Ottoman Empire) and captured. The man remained in slavery until 1580, and tried unsuccessfully to escape 4 times. Ultimately, the parents bought their sons' freedom from the Ottomans for a lot of money - letters of recommendation to the king increased the demand for de Cervantes' head.

This fragment of biography is repeatedly mentioned in the works of de Cervantes. It is believed that in the story of the captive from “Don Quixote”, the plays “Life in Algiers” and “The Dungeons of Algiers” there are naturalistic scenes that a person who was not in slavery could not describe.

Career

Freed from captivity, de Cervantes lived with his parents in Madrid. By that time, he had already begun to write, but, like many authors of that time, he could not support himself on royalties. Creativity had to be combined with ordinary work.

In Andalusia, Miguel worked as a purchasing agent for the Spanish fleet: he looked for favorable prices for grain, oil, and other products, and then delivered purchases to the ships. One day he left money intended for completing the next ship with a banker. He, being dishonest, spent everything. For this, the writer spent several months in prison. Presumably, it was in prison that the idea of ​​Don Quixote was born.

De Cervantes later worked as a tax collector and accountant. In the last years of his life, from 1610 to 1616, the man lived on a royal pension, which allowed him to devote to literature around the clock.

Books

De Cervantes set out on the literary path when he was 38 years old. The debut "Galatea" (1585) was written in the genre classic for his time - a pastoral novel. The work remained unnoticed by high society, and the writer himself was not delighted with the “empty” idea of ​​his first attempt at writing.

While imprisoned, de Cervantes, who naturally possessed lively humor, came up with the idea of ​​composing a parody of the chivalric romances popular in the 16th century. The prisoner created the image of an elderly madman who, having read stories about heroes in armor, decided to travel the world in search of adventure.

The noble Don Quixote from the village of La Mancha is accompanied by his antipode Sancho Panza - a simple peasant who is used to looking at things pragmatically. It is important for him to receive the promised donkeys and the island, to protect the owner from danger and to explain in a timely manner that windmills are not dragons.

The prototype of a romantic gone mad is the playwright, whose works surpassed the books of de Cervantes in popularity. At one time, the poet, tired of writing autobiographical love stories, went on a trip around the world by ship, leaving his wife and children. It can be said that Miguel not only created the greatest work of the Golden Age, but also had a good laugh at the enemy.

The novel about the Knight of the Sad Image was published in two volumes: “The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha” in 1605, “The Second Part of the Brilliant Knight Don Quixote of La Mancha” in 1615. The continuation was, rather, a necessity: in 1614, a certain Avellaneda, whose identity has not yet been revealed, allegedly published the second part of the novel “Don Quixote of Avellaneda.” The work was directed against de Cervantes.

Don Quixote is a great contribution to world culture. called de Cervantes's novel "the most sublime work of human thought." It was in Don Quixote that the quote “to judge the pudding must be tasted” was born, meaning that everything is tested in practice.

De Cervantes believed that his novels should be for the Spaniards what the short stories of Giovanni Boccaccio were for the Italians. For this purpose, the writer created “Edifying Stories” (1613) - a collection consisting of 12 stories. In the narrative, the writer acts as a humanist, giving the characters the right to freedom and happiness. The characters achieve what they want through suffering, but that only makes the joy of victory sweeter.

At the dawn of his life, de Cervantes composed the novel “The Wanderings of Persiles and Sigismunda,” which was published after the death of the writer, in 1617. Probably, in this work the Spaniard tried to imitate the ancient Greek Heliodor.

Personal life

Little is known about the personal life of Miguel de Cervantes. On December 12, 1584, the 19-year-old noblewoman Catalina Palacios de Salazar became the wife of the 37-year-old writer. The girl's dowry helped the couple live comfortably for some time. At the same time, de Cervantes had an illegitimate daughter, Isabel, with actress Ana de Rojas. As for the union with his young wife, it turned out to be short-lived and broke up at the end of the 1580s.

Death

The 68-year-old de Cervantes died in Madrid on April 22, 1616. According to modern doctors, the cause of death was type II diabetes caused by cirrhosis of the liver. These ailments explain the intense thirst that the writer complained of in the last years of his life.

According to his will, on April 23, de Cervantes was buried in the Monastery of the Barefoot Trinitarians in the center of Madrid. In 1673, during the reconstruction of the holy place, the remains of the writer, as well as other people, were transferred to a safe place for storage, and then could not be found - the tomb had no identification marks.

In 2014, archaeologists discovered a crypt in which 10 people were buried. The initials MS were stamped on the inside of the lid of one of the coffins. Based on portraits of the writer, three bullet wounds received at the Battle of Lepanto, and the fact that at the time of his death the author of Don Quixote had only 6 teeth left, scientists concluded that they were indeed the remains of de Cervantes. On June 11, 2015, they were buried in the monastery under the tombstone "Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra".

Bibliography

• 1585 – “Galatea”
• 1605 – “The cunning hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha”
• 1613 – “Edifying Stories”
• 1614 – “Journey to Parnassus”
• 1615 – “The second part of the brilliant knight Don Quixote of La Mancha”
• 1615 – “Eight comedies and eight interludes, new, never presented on stage”
• 1617 – “The Wanderings of Persiles and Sikhismunda”

Miguel was born on September 29, 1547 into a bankrupt noble family in the Spanish town of Alcala de Henares. There is no reliable information about the writer’s childhood and adolescence.

At the age of 23, Cervantes enlisted in the Spanish Marines. During one of the battles, he was seriously wounded: a bullet pierced the young soldier’s forearm, permanently depriving his left arm of mobility.

Having recovered his health in the hospital, Miguel returned to duty. He had the opportunity to participate in sea expeditions and visit many overseas countries. During his next voyage in 1575, he was captured by Algerian pirates, who demanded a large ransom for him. Cervantes spent five years in captivity, making several escape attempts. However, each time the fugitive was caught and severely punished.

The long-awaited liberation came with Christian missionaries, and Miguel returned to service.

Creation

Cervantes realized his true calling at a fairly mature age. His first novel, Galatea, was written in 1585. Like several dramatic plays that followed it, it was not a success.

However, even in the most difficult times, when the money he earned was barely enough to feed himself, Miguel did not stop composing, drawing inspiration from his wandering life.

The muse took pity on the persistent writer only in 1604, when he wrote the first part of his imperishable novel “The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha.” The book immediately aroused keen interest among readers not only in his native Spain, but also in other countries.

Unfortunately, the publication of the novel did not bring Cervantes the long-awaited financial stability, but he did not give up. Soon he published a continuation of the “heroic” exploits of the hidalgo, as well as several other works.

Personal life

Miguel's wife was the noblewoman Catalina Palacios de Salazar. According to a brief biography of Cervantes, this marriage turned out to be childless, but the writer had one illegitimate daughter, whom he recognized - Isabella de Cervantes.

Death

• While serving in the Marine Corps, Cervantes proved himself to be a brave soldier. He took part in battles even during a severe fever, not wanting to let his comrades down and lie down on the deck of the ship.
• Unfortunately for Miguel, during his captivity a letter of recommendation was found on him, which is why the Algerian pirates decided that they had come across an influential person. As a result, the ransom amount was increased several times, and the writer’s widowed mother had to sell all her modest property in order to free her son from captivity.
• Cervantes's first fee was three silver spoons, which he received at a poetry competition.
• At the end of his life, Miguel de Cervantes completely reconsidered his position in life, and literally a few days before his death, he cut his hair as a monk.
• For a long time, no one knew the exact burial place of the outstanding Spanish writer. Only in 2015 did archaeologists manage to discover his remains, which were solemnly reburied in the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Madrid.

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra(Spanish: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra; September 29, 1547, Alcala de Henares, Castile - April 23, 1616, Madrid) - world famous Spanish writer and soldier.
Born in Alcala de Henares (Province of Madrid). His father, hidalgo Rodrigo de Cervantes (the origin of Cervantes’s second surname, “Saavedra,” on the titles of his books, has not been established), was a modest surgeon, a nobleman by blood, his mother was Dona Leonor de Cortina; their large family constantly lived in poverty, which did not leave the future writer throughout his sorrowful life. Very little is known about the early stages of his life. Since the 1970s In Spain, there is a widespread version about the Jewish origin of Cervantes, which influenced his work; probably, his mother came from a family of baptized Jews.
Cervantes's family often moved from city to city, so the future writer was not able to receive a systematic education. In 1566-1569, Miguel studied at the Madrid city school with the famous humanist grammarian Juan Lopez de Hoyos, a follower of Erasmus of Rotterdam.
Miguel made his debut in literature with four poems published in Madrid under the patronage of his teacher Lopez de Hoyos.
In 1569, after a street skirmish that ended with the injury of one of its participants, Cervantes fled to Italy, where he served in Rome in the retinue of Cardinal Acquaviva, and then enlisted as a soldier. On October 7, 1571, he took part in the naval battle of Lepanto and was wounded in the forearm (his left hand remained inactive for the rest of his life).
Miguel Cervantes participated in military campaigns in Italy (he was in Naples), Navarino (1572), Portugal, and also carried out service trips to Oran (1580s); served in Seville. He also took part in a number of sea expeditions, including to Tunisia. In 1575, carrying a letter of recommendation (lost by Miguel during captivity) from Juan of Austria, commander-in-chief of the Spanish army in Italy, he sailed from Italy to Spain. The galley carrying Cervantes and his younger brother Rodrigo was attacked by Algerian pirates. He spent five years in captivity. He tried to escape four times, but failed each time, and was only miraculously not executed; in captivity he was subjected to various tortures. In the end he was ransomed from captivity by the monks of the Brotherhood of the Holy Trinity and returned to Madrid.
In 1585 he married Catalina de Salazar and published a pastoral novel, La Galatea. At the same time, his plays began to be staged in Madrid theaters, the vast majority of which, unfortunately, have not survived to this day. Of Cervantes' early dramatic experiments, the tragedy "Numancia" and the "comedy" "Algerian Manners" have been preserved.
Two years later, he moved from the capital to Andalusia, where for ten years he first served as a supplier to the “Great Armada” and then as a tax collector. For financial shortfalls in 1597 (In 1597 he was imprisoned in a Seville prison for a period of seven months on charges of embezzlement of government money (the bank in which Cervantes kept the collected taxes burst) was imprisoned in a Seville prison, where he began writing a novel " The cunning hidalgo Don Quixote de La Mancha" ("Del ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de La Mancha").

In 1605 he was released, and in the same year the first part of Don Quixote was published, which immediately became incredibly popular.
In 1607, Cervantes arrived in Madrid, where he spent the last nine years of his life. In 1613 he published the collection “Edifying Stories” (“Novelas ejemplares”), and in 1615 the second part of “Don Quixote”. In 1614 - in the midst of Cervantes's work on it - a false continuation of the novel appeared, written by an anonymous person hiding under the pseudonym "Alonso Fernandez de Avellaneda". The Prologue to "The False Quixote" contained rude attacks personally against Cervantes, and its content demonstrated a complete lack of understanding by the author (or authors?) of the forgery of the full complexity of the original's plan. “The False Quixote” contains a number of episodes that plotally coincide with episodes from the second part of Cervantes’s novel. The dispute among researchers about the priority of Cervantes or the anonymous author cannot be resolved definitively. Most likely, Miguel Cervantes specifically included revised episodes from Avellaneda’s work in the second part of Don Quixote in order to once again demonstrate his ability to transform artistically unimportant texts into art (similar to his treatment of knightly epics).
“The second part of the cunning caballero Don Quixote of La Mancha” was published in 1615 in Madrid in the same printing house as the “Don Quixote” edition of 1605. For the first time, both parts of “Don Quixote” were published under the same cover in 1637.
Cervantes finished his last book, “The Wanderings of Persiles and Sigismunda” (“Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda”), a love adventure novel in the style of the ancient novel “Ethiopica”, just three days before his death on April 23, 1616; This book was published by the writer's widow in 1617.
A few days before his death, he became a monk. His grave remained lost for a long time, since there was not even an inscription on his tomb (in one of the churches). A monument to him was erected in Madrid only in 1835; on the pedestal there is a Latin inscription: “To Michael Cervantes Saavedra, king of the Spanish poets.” A crater on Mercury is named after Cervantes.
According to the latest data, the first Russian translator of Cervantes is N. I. Oznobishin, who translated the short story “Cornelia” in 1761.

Spanish literature

Saavedra Miguel Cervantes

Biography

Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de (1547−1616), Spanish writer. Born in Alcala de Henares (Province of Madrid). His father, Rodrigo de Cervantes, was a modest surgeon, and his large family constantly lived in poverty, which did not leave the future writer throughout his sorrowful life. Very little is known about his childhood, other than that he was baptized on October 9, 1547; the next documentary account of him, some twenty years later, names him as the author of a sonnet addressed to Queen Isabella of Valois, third wife of Philip II; Soon after this, while studying at the city college of Madrid, he is mentioned in connection with several poems on the death of the queen (October 3, 1568).

Cervantes probably studied in fits and starts and did not reach an academic degree. Not finding a means of subsistence in Spain, he went to Italy and in 1570 decided to serve under Cardinal G. Acquaviva. In 1571 he was listed as a soldier in the naval expedition that the Spanish king, pope and lord of Venice were preparing against the Turks. Cervantes fought bravely at Lepanto (7 October 1571); one of the wounds he received crippled his hand. He went to Sicily to recuperate and remained in southern Italy until 1575, when he decided to return to Spain, hoping to be rewarded for his service with a captain's post in the army. On September 26, 1575, the ship on which he was sailing was captured by Turkish pirates. Cervantes was taken to Algiers, where he stayed until September 19, 1580. In the end, with money raised by Cervantes’ family, he was redeemed by Trinitarian monks. He expected a decent reward upon returning home, but his hopes were not justified.

In 1584, 37-year-old Cervantes married 19-year-old Catalina de Palacios in Esquivias (province of Toledo). But family life, like everything else for Cervantes, proceeded in fits and starts; he spent many years away from his wife; Isabel de Saavedra, his only child, was born from an extramarital affair.

In 1585, Cervantes became commissioner for the purchase of wheat, barley and olive oil in Andalusia for the "Invincible Armada" of Philip II. This unremarkable job was also thankless and dangerous. On two occasions Cervantes had to requisition wheat that belonged to the clergy, and although he carried out the king's orders, he was excommunicated. To add insult to injury, he was put on trial and then imprisoned because his reports were found to have irregularities. Another disappointment came with an unsuccessful petition for office in Spain's American colonies in 1590.

It is assumed that during one of his imprisonments (1592, 1597 or 1602) Cervantes began his immortal work. However, in 1602 judges and courts stopped pursuing him over his alleged debt to the crown, and in 1604 he moved to Valladolid, where the king was staying at that time. From 1608 he lived permanently in Madrid and devoted himself entirely to writing and publishing books. In the last years of his life he supported himself mainly by pensions from the Count of Lemos and the Archbishop of Toledo. Cervantes died in Madrid on April 23, 1616.

The above facts give only a fragmentary and approximate idea of ​​Cervantes’s life, but, in the end, the greatest events in it were the works that brought him immortality. Sixteen years after the publication of the school poems, the First Part of Galatea (La primera parte de la Galatea, 1585), a pastoral romance in the spirit of Diana H. Montemayor (1559), appeared. Its content consists of the vicissitudes of love between idealized shepherds and shepherdesses. In Galatea, prose alternates with poetry; there are no main characters or unity of action here; the episodes are connected in the most simple way: the shepherds meet each other and talk about their joys and sorrows. The action takes place against the backdrop of conventional pictures of nature - these are unchanging forests, springs, clean streams and eternal spring, which allows you to live in the lap of nature. Here the idea of ​​divine grace, sanctifying the souls of the elect, is humanized, and love is likened to a deity whom the lover worships and who strengthens his faith and will to live. Faith, born of human desires, was thus equated with religious beliefs, which probably explains the constant attacks by Catholic moralists on the pastoral romance, which flourished and faded in the second half of the 16th century. Galatea is undeservedly forgotten, because already in this first significant work, the characteristic idea of ​​life and the world for the author of Don Quixote was outlined. Cervantes repeatedly promised to release a second part, but a sequel never appeared. In 1605, the first part of the Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha (El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha) was published, and the second part appeared in 1615. Edifying short stories (Las novelas exemplares) were published in 1613; in 1614 the Journey to Parnassus (Viaje del Parnaso) was published; in 1615 - Eight comedies and eight interludes (Ocho comedias y ocho entremeses nuevos). The Wanderings of Persiles and Sigismunda (Los trabajos de Persiles y Segismunda) were published posthumously in 1617. Cervantes also mentions the titles of several works that have not reached us - the second part of Galatea, The Week in the Garden (Las semanas del jardn), The Deception of the Eyes (El engao los ojos) and others. Edifying short stories unite twelve stories, and the edifying nature of the title (otherwise their “exemplary” character) is associated with the “moral” contained in each short story. Four of them - The Magnanimous Suitor (El Amante liberal), Senora Cornelia (La Seora Cornelia), Two Maidens (Las dos donzellas) and the English Spaniard (La Espaola inglesa) - are united by a common theme, traditional for the Byzantine novel: a pair of lovers separated unfortunate and capricious circumstances, in the end he is reunited and finds long-awaited happiness. The heroines are almost all ideally beautiful and highly moral; they and their loved ones are capable of the greatest sacrifices and with all their souls are drawn to the moral and aristocratic ideal that illuminates their lives. Another group of “edifying” short stories is formed by The Power of Blood (La fuerza de la sangre), The High-born Scullery Maid (La ilustre fregona), The Gypsy Girl (La Gitanilla) and The Jealous Estremadure (El celoso estremeo). The first three offer stories of love and adventure with a happy ending, while the fourth ends tragically. In Rinconete and Cortadillo, El casamiento engaoso, El licenciado vidriera and A Conversation between Two Dogs, more attention is paid to the characters involved than to the action - this is the last group of short stories. Rinconete and Cortadillo is one of Cervantes' most charming works. Two young tramps get involved with a brotherhood of thieves. The comedy of the solemn ceremony of this gang of thugs is emphasized by the dryly humorous tone of Cervantes. Among his dramatic works, the Siege of Numancia (La Numancia) stands out - a description of the heroic resistance of the Iberian city during the conquest of Spain by the Romans in the 2nd century. BC. - and funny interludes such as the Divorce Judge (El Juez de los divorcios) and the Theater of Miracles (El retablo de las maravillas). Cervantes's greatest work is the one-of-a-kind book Don Quixote. Briefly, its content boils down to the fact that hidalgo Alonso Quihana, having read books about chivalry, believed that everything in them was true, and he himself decided to become a knight errant. He takes the name Don Quixote of La Mancha and, accompanied by the peasant Sancho Panza, who serves as his squire, goes in search of adventure.

Cervantes Saavedra Miguel de was born into the family of a poor Spanish surgeon in 1547. He lived with his large family in the province of Madrid, Alcala de Henares. Cervantes was baptized on October 9, 1547. Due to the poverty of the family, the guy studied in fits and starts. Being broke, he moved to Italy in 1570 and went to serve. From 1570 he joined the ranks of the navy until October 7, 1571, when he was commissioned due to a hand injury received in battle. He goes to Italy, where he lives until 1575. He is captured by pirates on September 26, 1575, while sailing to Spain, who take Cervantes to Algeria until September 19, 1580. Miguel met Esquivias in the province of Toledo, whom he married in 1584. Their family life did not work out, Cervantes was often not around, he even had an illegitimate daughter, Isabel de Saavedra. From 1585, Miguel goes to work as a commissioner for the purchase of provisions for the army of Philip II, but soon ends up in prison due to violations in his reports. While in prison, Cervantes begins to write. He combines prose and poetry, taking as a basis the relationship between a shepherd and a shepherdess. The First Part of Galatea was born in 1585. In 1604 he was released, and Miguel moved to Valladolid, and in 1608 to permanent residence in Madrid. He begins to diligently study literature. Grandiose masterpieces come from his pen. In 1605 “Don Quixote” was published, in 1613 – “Edifying Stories”, “Journey to Parnassus” in 1614, and in 1615 the author released the continuation of “Don Quixote”, the second part, and “Eight Comedies and Eight Interludes”. Cervantes took up writing another book, “The Wanderings of Persiles and Sigismunda,” which he never managed to publish during his lifetime. It was published in 1617.

The poet became the author of many publications and books that, of course, did not find such fame as “Don Quixote”, but were still published: “The Generous Admirer”, “The English Spaniard”, “Two Maidens” and “Senora Cornelia” and many others .

CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, MIGUEL DE(Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de) (1547–1616), Spanish writer.

Born in Alcala de Henares (Province of Madrid). His father, Rodrigo de Cervantes, was a modest surgeon, and his large family constantly lived in poverty, which did not leave the future writer throughout his sorrowful life. Very little is known about his childhood, other than that he was baptized on October 9, 1547; the next documentary account of him, some twenty years later, names him as the author of a sonnet addressed to Queen Isabella of Valois, third wife of Philip II; shortly afterwards, while studying at the City College of Madrid, he is mentioned in connection with several poems on the death of the queen (October 3, 1568).

Cervantes probably studied in fits and starts and did not reach an academic degree. Not finding a means of subsistence in Spain, he went to Italy and in 1570 decided to serve under Cardinal G. Acquaviva. In 1571 he was listed as a soldier in the naval expedition that the Spanish king, pope and lord of Venice were preparing against the Turks. Cervantes fought bravely at Lepanto (7 October 1571); one of the wounds he received crippled his hand. He went to Sicily to recuperate and remained in southern Italy until 1575, when he decided to return to Spain, hoping to be rewarded for his service with a captain's post in the army. On September 26, 1575, the ship on which he was sailing was captured by Turkish pirates. Cervantes was taken to Algiers, where he remained until September 19, 1580. In the end, with money raised by Cervantes' family, he was redeemed by Trinitarian friars. He expected a decent reward upon returning home, but his hopes were not justified.

In 1584, 37-year-old Cervantes married 19-year-old Catalina de Palacios in Esquivias (province of Toledo). But family life, like everything else for Cervantes, proceeded in fits and starts; he spent many years away from his wife; Isabel de Saavedra, his only child, was born from an extramarital affair.

In 1585, Cervantes became commissioner for the purchase of wheat, barley and olive oil in Andalusia for the "Invincible Armada" of Philip II. This unremarkable job was also thankless and dangerous. On two occasions Cervantes had to requisition wheat that belonged to the clergy, and although he carried out the king's orders, he was excommunicated. To add insult to injury, he was put on trial and then imprisoned because his reports were found to have irregularities. Another disappointment came with an unsuccessful petition for office in Spain's American colonies in 1590.

It is assumed that during one of his imprisonments (1592, 1597 or 1602) Cervantes began his immortal work. However, in 1602 judges and courts stopped pursuing him over his alleged debt to the crown, and in 1604 he moved to Valladolid, where the king was staying at that time. From 1608 he lived permanently in Madrid and devoted himself entirely to writing and publishing books. In the last years of his life he supported himself mainly by pensions from the Count of Lemos and the Archbishop of Toledo. Cervantes died in Madrid on April 23, 1616.

The above facts give only a fragmentary and approximate idea of ​​Cervantes’s life, but, in the end, the greatest events in it were the works that brought him immortality. Sixteen years after the publication of school poems appeared First part of Galatea (La primera parte de la Galatea, 1585), a pastoral romance in the spirit Diana H. Montemayor (1559). Its content consists of the vicissitudes of love between idealized shepherds and shepherdesses. IN Galatea prose alternates with poetry; there are no main characters or unity of action here; the episodes are connected in the most simple way: the shepherds meet each other and talk about their joys and sorrows. The action takes place against the backdrop of conventional pictures of nature - these are unchanging forests, springs, clean streams and eternal spring, which allows you to live in the lap of nature. Here the idea of ​​divine grace, sanctifying the souls of the elect, is humanized, and love is likened to a deity whom the lover worships and who strengthens his faith and will to live. Faith, born of human desires, was thus equated with religious beliefs, which probably explains the constant attacks by Catholic moralists on the pastoral romance, which flourished and faded in the second half of the 16th century. Galatea undeservedly forgotten, because already in this first significant work the author’s characteristic Don Quixote idea of ​​life and the world. Cervantes repeatedly promised to release a second part, but a sequel never appeared.

The first part was published in 1605 The cunning hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha (El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha), in 1615 the second part appeared. Came out in 1613 Instructive short stories (Las novelas exemplares); it was published in 1614 Journey to Parnassus (Viaje del Parnaso); in 1615 – Eight comedies and eight sideshows (Ocho comedias y ocho entremeses nuevos). The Wanderings of Persiles and Sikhismunda (Los trabajos de Persiles y Segismunda) were published posthumously in 1617. Cervantes also mentions the names of several works that have not reached us - the second part Galatea, Weeks in the garden (Las semanas del jardin), Trick of the eye (El engaño á los ojos) and others.

Instructive short stories unite twelve stories, and the edifying message contained in the title (otherwise, their “exemplary” character) is associated with the “morality” contained in each short story. Four of them - Generous admirer (El Amante liberal), Senora Cornelia (La Señora Cornelia), Two girls (Las dos donzellas) And English Spanish (La Española inglesa) - is united by a common theme, traditional for the Byzantine novel: a pair of lovers, separated by regrettable and capricious circumstances, are eventually reunited and find long-awaited happiness. The heroines are almost all ideally beautiful and highly moral; they and their loved ones are capable of the greatest sacrifices and with all their souls are drawn to the moral and aristocratic ideal that illuminates their lives.

Another group of “edifying” short stories is formed by Blood Power (La fuerza de la sangre), High-born dishwasher (La ilustre fregona), Gypsy (La Gitanilla) And Jealous Extremadure (El celoso estremeño). The first three offer stories of love and adventure with a happy ending, while the fourth ends tragically. IN Rinconete and Cortadillo (Rinconete and Cortadillo), Fraudulent marriage (El casamiento engañoso), Licentiate Vidrière (El licenciado vidriera) And Two dogs talking more attention is paid to the characters appearing in them than to the action - this is the last group of short stories. Rinconete and Cortadillo- one of the most charming works of Cervantes. Two young tramps get involved with a brotherhood of thieves. The comedy of the solemn ceremony of this gang of thugs is emphasized by the dryly humorous tone of Cervantes.

Among his dramatic works, stand out Siege of Numancia (La Numancia) - a description of the heroic resistance of the Iberian city during the conquest of Spain by the Romans in the 2nd century. BC. – and funny interludes such as Divorce Judge (El Juez de los divorcios) And Theater of Miracles (El retablo de las maravillas).

Cervantes's greatest work is a one-of-a-kind book Don Quixote. Briefly, its content boils down to the fact that hidalgo Alonso Quijana, having read books about chivalry, believed that everything in them was true, and he himself decided to become a knight errant. He takes the name Don Quixote of La Mancha and, accompanied by the peasant Sancho Panza, who serves as his squire, goes in search of adventure.