Miguel Cervantes story. Biography of Cervantes. World famous Spanish writer. "Instructive Novels" by Cervantes

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra(Spanish) Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ; presumably September 29, Alcala de Henares - April 22, Madrid) is a world famous Spanish writer. First of all, he is known as the author of one of the greatest works of world literature - the novel "Cunning hidalgo Don Quixote La Mancha".

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Biography

early years

Miguel Cervantes was born into a family of impoverished nobles, in the city of Alcala de Henares. His father, hidalgo Rodrigo de Cervantes, was a modest doctor, his mother, Doña Leonor de Cortina, the daughter of a nobleman who had lost his fortune. There were seven children in their family, Miguel was the fourth child [ ] . Very little is known about Cervantes' early life. The date of his birth is September 29, 1547 (the day of the Archangel Michael). This date was established approximately on the basis of the records of the church book and the tradition that existed then to give the child a name in honor of the saint, whose feast falls on his birthday. It is authentically known that Cervantes was baptized on October 9, 1547 in the church of Santa Maria la Mayor in the city of Alcala de Henares.

Some biographers claim that Cervantes studied at the University of Salamanca, but there is no convincing evidence for this version. There is also an unconfirmed version that he studied with the Jesuits in Cordoba or Seville.

According to Abraham Chaim, president of the Sephardic community in Jerusalem, Cervantes' mother came from a family of baptized Jews. Cervantes' father was from the nobility, but in his hometown of Alcala de Henares, the house of his ancestors, which is located in the center of the hooderia, that is, the Jewish quarter. The house of Cervantes is located in the former Jewish part of the city [ ] .

The activity of the writer in Italy

The reasons that motivated Cervantes to leave Castile remain unknown. Whether he was a student, or a fugitive from justice, or a royal arrest warrant for wounding Antonio de Siguru in a duel, is another mystery of his life. In any case, when he left for Italy, he did what other young Spaniards did in one way or another for their careers. Rome revealed its church rituals and grandeur to the young writer. In a city teeming with ancient ruins, Cervantes discovered ancient art, and also concentrated on Renaissance art, architecture and poetry (his knowledge of Italian literature can be traced in his works). He was able to find in the achievements of the ancient world a powerful impetus for the revival of art. Thus, the enduring love for Italy, which is visible in his later work, was a kind of desire to return to the early period of the Renaissance.

Military career and the Battle of Lepanto

There is another, unlikely, version of the loss of a hand. Due to the poverty of his parents, Cervantes received a meager education and, unable to find a livelihood, was forced to steal. Allegedly, it was for stealing that he was deprived of his hand, after which he had to leave for Italy. However, this version does not inspire confidence - if only because the hands of thieves at that time were no longer chopped off, as they were sent to the galleys, where both hands were required.

The Duke de Sesse, presumably in 1575, gave Miguel letters of recommendation (lost by Miguel during his capture) for the king and ministers, as he said in his certificate of July 25, 1578. He also asked the king to provide mercy and help to the brave soldier.

In Algerian captivity

In September 1575, Miguel Cervantes and his brother Rodrigo were returning from Naples to Barcelona aboard the galley "Sun" (la Galera del Sol). On the morning of September 26, on the approach to the Catalan coast, the galley was attacked by Algerian corsairs. The attackers were resisted, as a result of which many members of the Sun team were killed, and the rest were taken prisoner and taken to Algeria. :236 Letters of recommendation found in Miguel Cervantes led to an increase in the amount of the required ransom. In Algerian captivity, Cervantes spent 5 years (-), tried to escape four times and was only miraculously not executed. In captivity, he was often subjected to various torments.

Father Rodrigo de Cervantes, according to his petition of March 17, 1578, indicated that his son "was captured in a galley" Sun“, under the command of Carrillo de Quesada,” and that he “was wounded by two arquebus shots in the chest, and was injured in his left arm, which he cannot use.” The father did not have the funds to ransom Miguel due to the fact that he had previously ransomed his other son, Rodrigo, who was also on that ship, from captivity. The witness to this petition, Mateo de Santisteban, noted that he had known Miguel for eight years, and met him when he was 22 or 23 years old, on the day of the battle of Lepanto. He testified that Miguel " on the day of the battle he was sick and had a fever", and he was advised to stay in bed, but he decided to take part in the battle. For distinction in battle, the captain rewarded him with four ducats on top of his usual pay.

The news (in the form of letters) about Miguel's stay in Algerian captivity was brought by the soldier Gabriel de Castañeda, a resident of the Carriedo mountain valley from the village of Salazar. According to his information, Miguel was in captivity for about two years (that is, since 1575) with a Greek converted to Islam, captain Arnautriomas.

In the petition of Miguel's mother dated 1580, it was reported that she asked " give permission for the export of 2,000 ducats in the form of goods from the kingdom Valencia for the ransom of her son.

Service in Seville

In Seville, he handled the affairs of the Spanish fleet on the orders of Antonio de Guevara.

Intention to go to America

Miguel de Cervantes. Instructive novels. Translation from Spanish by B. Krzhevsky. Moscow. Publishing house "Fiction". 1983

Personal life

Almost on his deathbed, Cervantes did not stop working; a few days before his death, he took the vows as a monk. On April 22, 1616, life ended (he died of dropsy), which the carrier himself in his philosophical humor called “long indiscretion” and, leaving which, he “carried away a stone with an inscription on his shoulders, in which the destruction of his hopes was read.” However, according to the customs of that time, the date of his death was recorded as the date of his funeral - April 23. Because of this, it is sometimes said that the date of Cervantes' death coincides with the date of the death of another great writer - William Shakespeare, in fact, Cervantes died 11 days earlier (since, at that time, the Gregorian calendar was in force in Spain, and in England - Julian). April 23, 1616 is sometimes considered the end of the Renaissance.

Heritage

The monument to Cervantes was erected in Madrid only in 1835 (sculptor Antonio Sola); on the pedestal are two inscriptions in Latin and Spanish: "To Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, king of the Spanish poets, year M.D.CCC.XXXV".

The world significance of Cervantes rests mainly on his novel Don Quixote, a full, comprehensive expression of his diverse genius. Conceived as a satire on the chivalric novels that flooded all literature at that time, which the author definitely declares in the Prologue, this work little by little, perhaps even regardless of the will of the author, turned into a deep psychological analysis of human nature, two sides of mental activity - noble, but crushed by the reality of idealism and realistic practicality.

Both of these sides found a brilliant manifestation in the immortal types of the hero of the novel and his squire; in their sharp contrast, they - and this is the deep psychological truth - constitute, however, one person; only the fusion of these two essential aspects of the human spirit constitutes a harmonious whole. Don Quixote is ridiculous, his adventures depicted by a brilliant brush - if you do not think about their inner meaning - cause uncontrollable laughter; but it is soon replaced in the thinking and feeling reader by another kind of laughter, "laughter through tears," which is the essential and indispensable condition of every great humorous creation.

In the novel of Cervantes, in the fate of his hero, it was precisely the world irony that was reflected in a high ethical form. In beatings and all sorts of other insults to which the knight is subjected - despite their somewhat anti-artistic in literary terms - is one of the best expressions of this irony. Turgenev noted another very important moment in the novel - the death of his hero: at this moment, all the great significance of this person becomes available to everyone. When his former squire, wanting to console him, tells him that they will soon go on knightly adventures, “No,” the dying man answers, “all this has gone forever, and I ask everyone for forgiveness.”

Bibliography

"Galatea", 1585
"Destruction of Numancia"
"Algerian manners"
"Naval battle" (not preserved)
"The cunning hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha", 1605, 1615
"Instructive Novels", collection, 1613
"Journey to Parnassus", 1614
"Eight comedies and eight interludes, new, never presented on the stage", collection, 1615
"The Wanderings of Persiles and Sikhismund", 1617

Russian translations

The first Russian translator of Cervantes, according to the latest data, is N. I. Oznobishin, who translated the short story "Cornelia" in 1761. Then it was translated by M. Yu. Lermontov and V. A. Zhukovsky.

Memory

In honor of the heroine of Cervantes' short story "Gypsy Girl", the asteroid (529) Preciosa, discovered in 1904, was named (according to another version, it received the name from the title of the play by Pius Alexander Wolf, written in 1810).
The asteroids (571) Dulcinea (discovered in 1905) and (3552) Don Quixote (discovered in 1983) are named after the heroine and hero of the novel The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha.
In 1965, Salvador Dali made a series of "Five Immortal Spaniards" which included Cervantes, El Cid, El Greco, Velázquez and Don Quixote.
In 1966, a USSR postage stamp dedicated to Cervantes was issued.
In 1976, a crater named after Cervantes Cervantes on Mercury.
On September 18, 2005, in honor of Cervantes, the asteroid discovered on February 2, 1992 by E. V. Elst at the European Southern Observatory was named "79144 Cervantes".
The Plaza de España in Madrid is adorned with a sculptural composition, the central figure of which is Cervantes and his most famous heroes.
The monument to Miguel Cervantes was erected in Moscow in the Friendship Park.
Argentine is named after Cervantes

Spanish Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

world famous spanish writer

Miguel de Cervantes

short biography

The famous Spanish writer, author of Don Quixote, was born in 1547. It is known that he was baptized on October 9; perhaps the date of birth was September 29, St. Miguel. His family, noble but poor, lived in the town of Alcala de Henares. When Miguel grew up, his parents were close to ruin, so he entered the service of Giulio Acquaviva y Aragon, the ambassador of the Pope, worked for him as a housekeeper. Together they left Madrid for Rome in 1569.

Under Acquaviva, Cervantes stayed for about a year, and in the second half of 1570 he became a member of the Spanish army, a regiment stationed in Italy. This period of his biography took him 5 years and had a significant impact on his later life, since Cervantes had the opportunity to get to know Italy, its richest culture, and social order. The famous naval battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571 was also significant for Cervantes, because. he was wounded, as a result of which only his right arm remained active. He left the hospital in Messina only in the spring of 1572, but continued his military service.

In 1575, Miguel and his brother Rodrigo, also a soldier, were captured by pirates on a ship bound for Spain from Naples. They were sold into slavery and ended up in Algiers. To avoid heavy punishments and death, Cervantes was helped by the presence of letters of recommendation to the king. Four attempts to escape ended in failure, and only 5 years later, in 1580, Christian missionaries helped him gain freedom.

A life full of misadventures was replaced by the monotony of the civil service, the constant search for a livelihood. The beginning of literary activity also belongs to this period. Almost 40-year-old Cervantes wrote in 1585 the pastoral novel "Galatea" and about 30 plays, which did not make much impression on the public. The income from writing was too small, and the writer moved from Madrid to Seville, where he was hired to serve as a commissioner for food procurement. During the 6-year period of service, he had to be arrested three times: the negligence of documentation had such consequences.

In 1603, Cervantes retired, the next year he moved from Seville to Valladolid, which was the temporary capital of Spain. In 1606, Madrid was proclaimed the main city of the kingdom - Cervantes moved there, and the most successful period in terms of creativity is associated with this city in his biography. In 1605, the first part of Cervantes' greatest novel, The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha, was published, which, being a parody of chivalric romances, became a real encyclopedia of the life of Spain in the 17th century, a literary work filled with the deepest philosophical and social content. The name of its protagonist has long become a household name. World fame came to Cervantes far from immediately; the author of Don Quixote was known more as a person with rich life experience who survived the Algerian captivity.

The second part of the novel was written only 10 years later, and in this interval a number of works are published that strengthen his literary fame: the second most important work is Edifying Novels (1613), a collection of 8 comedies and 8 interludes. At the end of the creative path, a love-adventure novel appeared under the name "The Wanderings of Persilius and Sikhismund". Despite his fame, Cervantes remained a poor man, he lived in the Madrid area for the low-income.

In 1609 he became a member of the Brotherhood of Servants of Holy Communion; his two sisters and wife took monastic vows. He did the same - became a monk - and Cervantes himself literally on the eve of death. On April 23, 1616, while in Madrid, the author of the “knight of the sad image” died of dropsy. An interesting detail: on the same day, the life of another famous writer, W. Shakespeare, ended. Bad luck haunted Cervantes even after his death: the absence of an inscription on his grave led to the fact that for a very long time the burial place remained unknown.

Biography from Wikipedia

early years

Miguel Cervantes was born into a family of impoverished nobles, in the city of Alcala de Henares. His father, hidalgo Rodrigo de Cervantes, was a modest doctor, his mother, Doña Leonor de Cortina, the daughter of a nobleman who had lost his fortune. There were seven children in their family, Miguel was the fourth child. Very little is known about Cervantes' early life. The date of his birth is September 29, 1547 (the day of the Archangel Michael). This date was established approximately on the basis of the records of the church book and the tradition that existed then to give the child a name in honor of the saint, whose feast falls on his birthday. It is authentically known that Cervantes was baptized on October 9, 1547 in the church of Santa Maria la Mayor in the city of Alcala de Henares.

According to Abraham Chaim, president of the Sephardic community in Jerusalem, Cervantes' mother came from a family of baptized Jews. Cervantes' father was from the nobility, but in his hometown of Alcala de Henares, the house of his ancestors, which is located in the center of the hooderia, that is, the Jewish quarter. The Cervantes House is located in the former Jewish part of the city.

The activity of the writer in Italy

The reasons that prompted Cervantes to leave Castile remain unknown. Whether he was a student, or a fugitive from justice, or a royal arrest warrant for wounding Antonio de Siguru in a duel, is another mystery of his life. In any case, when he left for Italy, he did what other young Spaniards did for their careers in one way or another. Rome revealed its church rituals and grandeur to the young writer. In a city teeming with ancient ruins, Cervantes discovered ancient art and also concentrated on Renaissance art, architecture and poetry (his knowledge of Italian literature can be seen in his works). He was able to find in the achievements of the ancient world a powerful impetus for the revival of art. Thus, the enduring love for Italy, which is visible in his later work, was a kind of desire to return to the early period of the Renaissance.

Military career and the Battle of Lepanto

By 1570, Cervantes was enrolled as a soldier in the Spanish Marine Regiment stationed in Naples. He stayed there for about a year before entering active service. In September 1571, Cervantes sailed aboard the Marquis, part of the galley fleet of the Holy League, which on October 7 defeated the Ottoman flotilla at the Battle of Lepanto in the Gulf of Patras. Despite the fact that Cervantes had a fever that day, he refused to stay in bed and asked to fight. According to eyewitnesses, he said: I prefer, even when sick and in the heat, to fight like a good soldier ... and not hide under the protection of the deck". He fought bravely on board the ship and received three gunshot wounds - two in the chest and one in the forearm. The last wound deprived his left arm of mobility. In his poem "Journey to Parnassus" he had to say that he " lost the capacity of the left hand for the glory of the right(he was thinking about the success of the first part of Don Quixote). Cervantes always recalled with pride his participation in this battle: he believed that he had taken part in an event that would determine the course of European history.

After the Battle of Lepanto, Miguel Cervantes remained in the hospital for 6 months until his wounds had healed enough to allow him to continue his service. From 1572 to 1575 he continued his service, being mainly in Naples. In addition, he participated in expeditions to Corfu and Navarino, witnessed the capture of Tunisia and La Goulette by the Turks in 1574. In addition, Cervantes was in Portugal and also carried out business trips to Oran (1580s); served in Seville.

The Duke de Sesse, presumably in 1575, gave Miguel letters of introduction (lost by Miguel during his capture) for the king and ministers, as he reported in his certificate of July 25, 1578. He also asked the king to provide mercy and help to the brave soldier.

In Algerian captivity

In September 1575, Miguel Cervantes and his brother Rodrigo were returning from Naples to Barcelona aboard the galley "Sun" (la Galera del Sol). On the morning of September 26, on the way to the Catalan coast, the galley was attacked by Algerian corsairs. The attackers were resisted, as a result of which many members of the Sun team were killed, and the rest were taken prisoner and taken to Algeria. Letters of recommendation found in Miguel Cervantes led to an increase in the amount of the required ransom. In Algerian captivity, Cervantes spent 5 years (1575-1580), tried to escape four times and was only miraculously not executed. In captivity, he was often subjected to various torments.

Father Rodrigo de Cervantes, according to his petition of March 17, 1578, indicated that his son "was captured in a galley" Sun“, under the command of Carrillo de Quesada,” and that he “was wounded by two arquebus shots in the chest, and was injured in his left arm, which he cannot use.” The father did not have the funds to ransom Miguel due to the fact that he had previously ransomed his other son, Rodrigo, who was also on that ship, from captivity. A witness to this petition, Mateo de Santisteban, noted that he had known Miguel for eight years, and met him when he was 22 or 23 years old, on the day of the battle of Lepanto. He testified that Miguel " on the day of the battle he was sick and had a fever", and he was advised to stay in bed, but he decided to take part in the battle. For distinction in battle, the captain rewarded him with four ducats on top of his usual pay.

Miguel's mother's petition of 1580 reported that she requested " to authorize the export of 2,000 ducats in the form of goods from the Kingdom of Valencia for the ransom of her son.

On October 10, 1580, a notarial deed was drawn up in Algiers in the presence of Miguel Cervantes and 11 witnesses in order to redeem him from captivity. On October 22, a monk from the Order of the Holy Trinity (Trinitarian) Juan Gil "The Liberator of Captives" compiled a report based on this notarial act confirming Cervantes' merits to the king.

Service in Portugal

After being released from captivity, Miguel served with his brother in Portugal, as well as with the Marquis de Santa Cruz.

Trip to Yerevan

By order of the king, Miguel made a trip to Yerevan in the 1590s.

Service in Seville

In Seville, Cervantes was for some time an agent for Antonio Guevara, the royal commissioner for the American Navy. This new life was a hard test for him; he had to leave his favorite literary pursuits and reading, which served him as a rest from work; I could only occasionally see my family. His time was spent traveling around the villages and villages of Andalusia and Grenada, where he bought butter, grain bread and other products to supply the fleet. These activities did not suit his inclinations at all, and he suffered, feeling out of place.

Nevertheless, Cervantes fell in love with Seville. He liked the fact that no one here knew him, that he could at will get involved in the crowd, which his experienced eye observed with curiosity. During the ten years that Cervantes spent in Seville, this city became his second home. He studied in detail every corner of Seville, the customs and composition of its population.

Intention to go to America

On May 21, 1590, in Madrid, Miguel petitions the Council of the Indies for a vacancy in the American colonies, in particular in " Auditor's Office of the New Kingdom of Granada or the Governorate of the Province of Soconusco in Guatemala, or the Accountant of the Galleys of Cartagena, or the Corregidor of the City of La Paz”, and all because he still has not received favors for his long (22 years) service to the Crown. The Chairman of the Council of the Indies on June 6, 1590, left a note on the petition that the submitter " deserves to be given some kind of service and can be trusted».

Cervantes about himself

In the prologue of the Instructive Novels in 1613, Miguel de Cervantes wrote:

Under the portrait, my friend could write: “The man you see here, with an oval face, brown hair, an open and large forehead, a cheerful look and a hooked, although correct nose; with a silver beard, which twenty years ago was still golden; long mustache, small mouth; with teeth that are not very rare, but not dense either, because he has only six of them, and, moreover, very unsightly and poorly spaced, because there is no correspondence between them; ordinary growth - neither big nor small; with a good complexion, rather fair than swarthy; slightly stooped and heavy on his feet, he is the author of Galatea and Don Quixote of La Mancha, who, in imitation of Cesare Caporali of Perugia, composed Journey to Parnassus and other works that go around distorted, and sometimes without the name of the composer. His colloquial name is Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. He served as a soldier for many years and spent five and a half years in captivity, where he managed to learn to endure misfortunes patiently. At the naval battle of Lepanto his hand was mutilated by a shot from an arquebus, and although this mutilation seems otherwise ugly, in his eyes it is beautiful, for he received it in one of the most famous battles that were known in past centuries and which can happen in future, fighting under the victorious banners of the son of the "Thunderstorm of Wars" - the blessed memory of Charles the Fifth.
Miguel de Cervantes. Instructive novels. Translation from Spanish by B. Krzhevsky. Moscow. Publishing house "Fiction". 1983

Personal life

On December 12, 1584, Miguel Cervantes married a nineteen-year-old noblewoman of the city of Esquivias, Catalina Palacios de Salazar, from whom he received a small dowry. He had one illegitimate daughter - Isabel de Cervantes.

Character

The best of Cervantes' biographers, Schall, described him as follows: “The poet, windy and dreamy, lacked worldly skill, and he did not benefit either from his military campaigns or from his works. It was an unselfish soul, incapable of gaining glory or counting on success, alternately enchanted or indignant, irresistibly surrendering to all its impulses ... He was seen naively in love with everything beautiful, generous and noble, indulging in romantic dreams or love dreams, ardent on the battlefield, then immersed in deep reflection, then carefree cheerful ... From the analysis of his life, he comes out with honor, full of generous and noble activity, an amazing and naive prophet, heroic in his disasters and kind in his genius.

Literary activity

Title="(!LANG: Miguel de Cervantes(Retratos de Españoles Ilustres, 1791).">!} Miguel de Cervantes (Retratos de Españoles Ilustres, 1791).

Miguel's literary activity began quite late, when he was 38 years old. The first work, the pastoral novel Galatea (1585), was followed by a large number of dramatic plays, which enjoyed poor success.

In order to earn his daily bread, the future author of Don Quixote enters the commissary service; he is assigned to buy provisions for the "Invincible Armada", then he is appointed as a collector of arrears. In the performance of these duties, he suffers great setbacks. Having entrusted public money to one banker who fled with them, Cervantes was imprisoned in 1597 on charges of embezzlement. Five years later, he was destined to be imprisoned again on charges of money abuse. His life in those years was a whole chain of severe hardships, hardships and disasters.

In the midst of all this, he does not stop his writing activity until he prints anything. The wanderings prepare the material for his future work, serving as a means for studying Spanish life in its various manifestations.

From 1598 to 1603 there is almost no news of the life of Cervantes. In 1603, he appeared in Valladolid, where he was engaged in small private affairs that gave him a meager income, and in 1604 the first part of the novel The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha was published, which was a huge success in Spain (the first part sold out in a few weeks). edition and 4 others in the same year) and abroad (translations into many languages). However, it did not improve the author's financial situation in the least, but only increased the hostile attitude towards him, expressed in ridicule, slander, and persecution.

From that time until his death, the literary activity of Cervantes did not stop: between 1604 and 1616, the second part of Don Quixote appeared, all the short stories, many dramatic works (The Jealous Old Man, Theater of Miracles, Labyrinth of Love, etc. .), the poem "Journey to Parnassus" and the novel "Persiles and Sichismund" published after the death of the author was written.

Almost on his deathbed, Cervantes did not stop working; a few days before his death, he took the vows as a monk. On April 22, 1616, life ended (he died of dropsy), which the carrier himself in his philosophical humor called “long imprudence” and, leaving which, he “carried away a stone on his shoulders with an inscription in which the destruction of his hopes was read.” However, according to the customs of the time, the date of his death was recorded as the date of his funeral - 23 April. Because of this, it is sometimes said that the date of Cervantes' death coincides with the date of the death of another great writer - William Shakespeare, in fact, Cervantes died 11 days earlier (since, at that time, the Gregorian calendar was in effect in Spain, and the Julian calendar in England). April 23, 1616 is sometimes considered the end of the Renaissance. Cervantes died in extreme poverty, his tomb is lost.

Heritage

Cervantes died in Madrid, where he had moved from Valladolid shortly before his death. The irony of fate haunted the great humorist behind the coffin: his grave remained lost, since there was not even an inscription on his tomb (in one of the churches). The remains of the writer were discovered and identified only in March 2015 in one of the crypts in the monastery de las Trinitarias. In June of the same year they were reburied.

Miguel de Cervantes brief biography is set out in this article.

Miguel de Cervantes short biography

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra- famous Spanish writer, author of the novel "The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha".

Born presumably 29 September 1547 in a family of impoverished nobles, in the city of Alcala de Henares. When Miguel grew up, his parents were close to ruin, so he entered the service of Giulio Acquaviva y Aragon, the ambassador of the Pope, worked for him as a housekeeper. Together they left Madrid for Rome in 1569.

In 1605, the first part of Cervantes' greatest novel was published - "The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha", which, being a parody of chivalric romances, became a real encyclopedia of the life of Spain in the 17th century. But world fame did not come to Cervantes immediately.

The second part of the novel was written only 10 years later, and in this interval a number of works are published that strengthen his literary fame: the second most important work is Instructive Novels (1613), a collection of 8 comedies and 8 interludes. At the end of the creative path, a love-adventure novel appeared under the name "The Wanderings of Persilius and Sikhismund". Despite his fame, Cervantes remained a poor man, he lived in the Madrid area for the low-income.

In 1609 he became a member of the Brotherhood of Servants of Holy Communion; his two sisters and wife took monastic vows. Did the same - became a monk - and Cervantes himself literally on the eve of death.

Personal life of Cervantes

Born in 1547 in the provincial town of Alcala de Henares, thirty kilometers from Madrid, in the family of a surgeon.

The large family of the future writer lived in poverty, but was famous for the title of hidalgo. In the Cervantes family, Miguel was the fourth of seven children.

Even with such a title, the Cervantes family, led by Father Rodrigo, had to move from place to place in search of work.

There are unverified reports that he studied at the University of Salamanca. Cervantes left his native land and, having arrived in Italy, got acquainted with the art of ancient times, the Renaissance.

In Rome, he drew inspiration, studied the works of Italian writers, which left its mark on the later works of the author.

In 1570 he entered the Naples Marine Corps. It is also known that he participated in the Battle of Lepanto, where he lost his left arm. During this battle, the writer showed heroism and courage, which he was rightfully proud of.

In addition, during the service, the writer took part in campaigns to Corfu and Navarino. He was present at the surrender of Tunis and La Gleta to the Ottoman Empire. Returning home from service, Cervantes is captured by Algerian pirates, who sold him into slavery. The future writer made several unsuccessful attempts to escape and miraculously escaped execution. After spending five years in captivity, he was ransomed by missionaries.

Miguel de Cervantes started quite late. Upon returning home, he wrote his first work, Galatea, followed by many other dramatic plays. Unfortunately, his works were not in great demand, which forced him to look for other sources of income: either he took on the purchase of provisions for ships, or he worked as a collector of arrears.

The life of the future author was difficult, full of hardships and hardships. He had to go through a lot, however, Miguel was constantly working on the work of his whole life and in 1604 the first part of the immortal novel The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha was published for the first time. The work immediately made a splash, the book literally scattered from the shelves, translations were made into many languages. However, the financial situation of the author did not improve from this.

Cervantes continued to write actively, for 12 years, from 1604 to 1616. Numerous short stories, dramatic works, a continuation of the bestseller Don Quixote, as well as a novel published only after the death of the author of Persiles and Sichismund were born.

Miguel was tonsured a monk presumably in 1616, the same year the world-famous writer, who lived a difficult life, died. For a long time, the grave of the writer remained lost, due to the lack of an inscription on his tomb. It is impossible to overestimate the contribution of Cervantes to world literature, he became the founder of the personal epic.

The significance of Cervantes is based mainly on the novel Don Quixote. This work, known all over the world today, fully reveals his versatile genius. Here there is a deep analysis of the nature of people, from two angles: idealism and realism. In the fates of his heroes, complementing each other in the best possible way, all the salt of world irony is reflected. After leading his knight through real life, the author reveals a diverse panorama of Spanish society.

The writing

On the other hand, this work reflects with exceptional completeness the crisis that Spain was going through at the end of the 16th century, and the contradictory consciousness of the progressive people of that time. All this makes Cervantes one of the most profound realists that the European literature of the era knows.

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616) was born in the town of Alcala de Henares. He belonged to the hidalgia and was the son of a poor doctor. Lack of funds prevented him from getting a good education, but he still graduated from the university. At the age of twenty-one, Cervantes entered the service of the papal ambassador to Spain, Cardinal Acquaviva. When he returned to his homeland, Cervantes went with him to Italy. After the death of the cardinal, he entered as a soldier in the Spanish army operating in Italy, was soon enrolled in the fleet and took part in the Battle of Lepanto (1571), where he fought bravely and received a severe injury to his left hand. In 1575, he decided to return to Spain, but the ship on which he sailed was attacked by Algerian corsairs, and Cervantes was captured by them. He languished in Algiers for five years, incessantly arranging conspiracies to escape, ending in failure, until he was finally redeemed from captivity. At home, he found a completely ruined family, and everyone in Spain had already forgotten about his military merits. In search of income, Cervantes writes plays for the theater, as well as various poems, for which, having brought them to some noble person, one could receive a small monetary reward. In addition, he is working on Galatea (see the previous chapter about it), which was published in 1585. At this time, Cervantes was getting married. The scarcity and unreliability of literary earnings forced Cervantes to accept the position of first a grain collector for the army, then a collector of arrears. Having entrusted public money to one banker who fled with them, Cervantes in 1597 goes to prison on charges of embezzlement. Five years later, he is again imprisoned on charges of money abuse.

Cervantes spent the last fifteen years of his life in great need. Nevertheless, this was the period of the highest flowering of his work. In 1605, the first part of the novel The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha was published, begun or at least conceived by Cervantes during his second imprisonment. The publication in 1614 by a certain Avellaneda of a fake continuation of Don Quixote prompted Cervantes to hasten the end of his novel, and in 1615 the second part of it was published. Shortly before that, in the same year, he published a collection of his plays, and before that, in 1613, he published Edifying Novels. The following year he completed the literary satire Journey to Parnassus. The last work of Cervantes was the novel Persiles and Sichismund, mentioned above (see the previous chapter), published after his death.

The life of Cervantes, typical of a sensitive and gifted representative of hidalgia, is a series of ardent hobbies, failures, disappointments and continuous courageous struggle with poverty and at the same time with the inertia and vulgarity of the world around him. The same long series of searches is the work of Cervantes, who found his way relatively late. For a long time he writes to order, adapts to the prevailing style, develops "fashionable" genres, trying to say his word in this area, to introduce realistic content and deep moral issues into this style and genres. But these attempts are almost invariably unsuccessful, until, already in his declining years, Cervantes creates his own style and his own genres, capable of fully expressing his finally mature thought.

Almost all of Cervantes' lyrics, his literary satirical poem, as well as experiments in the field of pastoral and chivalric romance ("Galatea" and "Persiles and Sichismund"), in which he strives for psychological truthfulness and the affirmation of truly noble feelings, are distinguished by some conventionality and far-fetchedness. The same can be said about the largest part of his dramatic work. In his dramaturgy, Cervantes primarily seeks verisimilitude, rebelling against the too free treatment of space and time by some contemporary playwrights, against the piling up of various adventures, extravagances and absurdities in the plot, against the discrepancy between the social position of the characters and their language, etc. (see . his statements in Don Quixote, part I, chapter XLVIII).

All this inclined Cervantes to the style of the scientific humanistic drama of the Renaissance (despite the fact that, not distinguished by pedantry, he did not observe all of its “rules”) and made him an opponent of the dramatic system of Lope de Vega, the too free nature of which he initially condemned, although he recognized the brilliant talent of his opponent. At the same time, Cervantes set moral and educational tasks for the theater, protesting against the understanding of the performance solely as a fun, entertaining spectacle. Defining drama, following Cicero, as “a mirror of human life, an example of morals and patterns of truth,” Cervantes remarks: “Having watched a comedy that is intricate and distinguished by art in disposition, the viewer will leave the theater, laughing at jokes, imbued with moralizing, delighted with incidents, wise reasoning, warned by intrigues, taught by examples, outraged by vice and in love with virtue, for a good comedy is able to awaken all these passions in any soul, even the most rude and unreceptive. (“Don Quixote”, cit. chapter). Hence the dual themes of Cervantes' dramaturgy: satirical-realistic and heroic.

However, Cervantes' own theatrical experiences, with a few exceptions, were not very successful. They were not successful with contemporaries, and most of them have not come down to us. Cervantes did not master the dramatic form and failed to create completely lively characters.

Of Cervantes' great plays, only two stand out. One of them, "Numantia", depicts an episode from the history of the heroic struggle for independence of the ancient Spaniards (Iberians) against the Romans. The inhabitants of the city of Numantia, besieged by the Roman commander Scipio, seeing the inevitability of their death from starvation, prefer death to the shame of surrender to the enemy and, having previously burned everything of value that they had from property, they completely commit suicide. A number of features of the play betray the influence of Seneca and his Renaissance interpretations. These include: an abundance of all sorts of horrors, such as, for example, a spell of spirits, a picture of the suffering of women and small children from hunger, the final massacre, which, however, the viewer learns about only from the story of the last surviving Numantine, who plays the role of the ancient "herald". This is the appearance of allegorical figures of Famine, War, the Duero River, which tells about the suffering of Spain. Finally, Glory, praising in a kind of epilogue the valor of the Numantines and predicting the future power of their descendants. This is the complete absence of an admixture of a comic element, etc. Despite the rational construction of the play and its rather rhetorical language, this tragedy is full of patriotic pathos and contains a number of exciting scenes. During the years of great national trials, she was repeatedly revived on the Spanish stage.

The second play by Cervantes, which took shape under the influence of a picaresque novel, is the comedy "Pedro de Urdemalas", close to folk art, - with great poignancy depicts the mores of tramps, street crooks, all kinds of adventurers, judicial chicane, etc. Cervantes inserts adventures into this frame Pedro de Urdemalas, whose image was created by folk art and is found in old Spanish fairy tales and tales.

Another peak of the dramatic work of Cervantes are his interludes, written by him, probably between 1605 and 1611. These are small, sharply comic pieces in which types and situations have much in common with medieval farces, but are much more lively. With great knowledge of folk life and the psyche, Cervantes draws scenes from the life of peasants, artisans, city swindlers, judges, poor students, exposing the debauchery of the clergy, the tyranny of husbands, the swindling of charlatans, and also good-naturedly ridiculing gullibility, talkativeness, passion for litigation and other human weaknesses.

Subtle humor and wonderfully vivid language give these plays a great charm. Particularly popular are the Theater of Miracles, the Salamanca Cave, the Jealous Old Man and the Two Talkers.

Even more remarkable than Cervantes' interludes is the collection of his fourteen "Instructive Novels." The short stories of Cervantes constituted an important stage in the development of this genre in Spain. Cervantes first established in Spain the type of Renaissance Italian short story, decisively departing from the tradition of medieval storytellers, but at the same time he reformed this Italian type, giving it national Spanish features. The main model for Cervantes was the Italian writer of the mid-16th century. Bandello, whose short stories, containing a broad picture of the mores of the era, are full of exciting dramatic moments and, in terms of the breadth of their presentation, the thoroughness of the descriptions, the abundance of episodes and all kinds of details, approach the genre of small novels. We find all these features in Cervantes. But at the same time, the short stories of the latter have a completely original and national character. Their plots - in this era of constant borrowing of novelistic plots - are almost completely composed by Cervantes. Life, the situation is entirely Spanish. The erotic element, in contrast to the Italian novelists, is extremely restrained. The style is characterized by a truly Cervantes combination of precision with humor, sometimes good-natured, sometimes bitter. The exposition is even more thorough than that of Bandello. In particular, a huge place is occupied by the speeches of the characters, often very lengthy. In general, drawing rare, but quite possible conflicts and incidents from the life of hidalgos and caballeros, townspeople, warriors, commoners, procurers, corsairs, looking at the occasion into a gypsy camp, a thieves' den or even a lunatic asylum, Cervantes gives a picture of the mores of the era, no less detailed and colorful than his contemporary picaresque novels. But while these latter only expose reality, destroying all illusions, and come to a hopelessly gloomy view of life, Cervantes, with his deeply critical attitude to reality and the presence of features of sharp social satire, in general still defends a holistic and optimistic approach to life, defending positive moral values. Hence the very title of the collection "Instructive Novels", meaning not a straightforward moralization in the medieval sense, but an invitation to look deeper into life and rebuild it on a moral basis.

Cervantes believes in the possibility of a happy resolution of the most intricate and dangerous situations, if the people who have fallen into them are honest, noble and energetic; he believes in the "voice of nature" and in its good forces, in the final triumph of a person fighting against evil and hostile principles.

In this regard, he is always on the side of a young and sincere feeling, defending his rights against any coercion and social conventions. However, the direct rehabilitation of the flesh and the absolutization of the instincts of human nature are alien to him.

The problem of conscience is always in the foreground for him (“Jealous Extremaduran”, “Magnanimous Admirer”).

In the same way, Cervantes is far from idyllic nonchalance or any kind of abstract utopianism. In his eyes, life is a severe test, requiring great courage, energy, patience and internal discipline from a person, since it is necessary to overcome not only external obstacles, but also oneself.

The ideals of Cervantes, revealed in the Instructive Novels, are love for life, but without intoxication with it, courage without arrogance, moral exactingness towards oneself and others, but without any asceticism or intolerance, modest, unostentatious heroism, and most importantly, deep humanity and generosity .