|
Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra
Life Time
29 September 1547 - 23 April 1616
|
World-renowned author Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
He was born in Alca de Henares, Spain, on September 29, 1547. His large family lived in poverty, not allowing his writing career to develop properly. His father was a humble surgeon, and his mother was Dona Leonor de Cortina. At a young age, Miguel de Cervantes took part in military battles in Italy, Portugal and Tunisia, participated in naval battles, and also served in Seville. In 1590, having survived captivity, bloody battles and tortures,
more
World-renowned author Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
He was born in Alca de Henares, Spain, on September 29, 1547. His large family lived in poverty, not allowing his writing career to develop properly. His father was a humble surgeon, and his mother was Dona Leonor de Cortina.
At a young age, Miguel de Cervantes took part in military battles in Italy, Portugal and Tunisia, participated in naval battles, and also served in Seville. In 1590, having survived captivity, bloody battles and tortures, de Cervantes received recommendations from the Council of the Indies to serve in America.
According to historians and literary critics, there is little information about Miguel de Cervantes and his personal life, and it is quite contradictory. He was married to Catalina Palacios de Salazar. He also had an illegitimate daughter, Isabel de Cervantes. However, some researchers suggest that he was homosexual.
The literary work of de Cervantes deserves special attention. Miguel began writing at the age of 38, creating his first work Galatea (1585). Hoping that at least this business he can earn bread, he does not give up writing, while working in other places. After the publication of Galatea, which had little success, de Cervantes quieted down, appearing in history only in 1603. Then he started doing small things to earn money. A year later, having accumulated materials about the life of the Spaniards, he published a part of the novel “The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha”. The work was a great success in Spain, but did not help the writer to improve his plight. From that time until his death, Miguel de Cervantes continued to work on new books. During the years of his work, he published the works “English Spaniard”, “Two Maidens”, “Watchful Guardian”, “Novella on a Conversation”, etc. However, his best work remained “Don Quixote”, which the author conceived as a satire over the then popular knightly novels.
Miguel de Cervantes died on April 23, 1616 of dropsy, without stopping to work. Even after his death, he did not receive proper treatment – his unmarked grave could not be found for a long time, and only at the end of the XIX century he was erected a monument in Madrid. /