Spanish Authors-Cervantes
Don Quijote is one of the best known Spanish novels in the world.The author Miguel de Cervantes is one of the world´s best known authors.The novel was published in 1615.Cervantes had led a very difficult life.He was born ,they think,born on September 29,St Michael´s Day.He was christened on October 9 1547 in Alcala ,near Madrid.His father Rodrigo de cervantes was a barber -surgeon.The family was moving constantly and so Miguel led a nomadic sort of life.Miguel was the fourth of seven children.His mother was Leonor de Cortinas.
His education is not recorded in any detail.He was a student of the Spanish humanist Juan Lopez de Hoyos in Madrid from 1568 to 1569..then he went to Rome to study with Guilio Acquavita .Acquavitawas ordained as a cardinal in 1570.He went to Rome to find a better life as did many Spanishmen,He wanted to write and needed money so he joined the Spanish infantry in Naples.It appears that he enjoyed his military service .He fought in the battle of the Gulf de Lepanto and was badly injured .On his passage home he was captured by pirates and kept in slavery for 5 years.
He was released after his family and others managed to gather enough money to get him released.It is thought that it was in prison that cervantes gathered his material for his first works.In 1584 he married but it didn´t work out and when they parted he led a very difficult life and found himself in prison a number of times.In 1605 the first instalment of Don Quijote was published..It met with immediate success.In 1615 the final instalment was published .The work was translated into French,English and Italian.He did not prosper from this success as he had sold the rights to the book but it did help with his finances,even though it didn´t make him rich.His literary success came after his death.He wrote other things but none with the success of his famous novel.