Leonor’s father, however, squandered all the family’s wealth and had to sell Leonor off to regain some of his fortune. Miguel’s mother, Leonor de Cortinas, was born into a noble family. See page for author, via Wikimedia Commons To make matters worse for the Cervantes family, Rodrigo suffered from deafness. Although this was an extremely demanding job, it paid very little. Barbers in the past would be responsible for cutting hair, hacking off limbs, and even applying leeches to help cure certain ailments. All surgical tasks actually fell into the hands of barbers. Miguel’s father, Rodrigo, worked as what was then called a “barber surgeon.” Believe it or not, physicians in medieval Europe weren’t allowed to perform surgery. Miguel de Cervantes was born in Madrid in 1547. He was the fourth of seven children. There’s a reason why readers have passed down this work through the ages, and now it’s your turn to be inspired by the genius of Cervantes’s masterful tale. Although Don Quixote is long, it’s full of wit, pathos, and rich wisdom. We hope that by the end of this short article on the life of Cervantes, you’ll feel the urge to check out a copy of his classic work. Unfortunately, Don Quixote, like so many other great works of literature, fits Mark Twain’s humorous definition of a classic: “a book which people praise and don’t read.”

This long novel is considered by many to be the first modern novel, and it serves as a major bridge between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Miguel de Cervantes, 1547-1616, by Eugenio Hansen, OSF, via Wikimedia CommonsĪnd Cervantes’s legacy rests on one legendary book: Don Quixote. There is no third.” Although no literary critic would ever deny the importance of these two poets, there is an obvious “third” that Eliot failed to mention: 17th-century Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes. Eliot once quipped, “Dante and Shakespeare divide the world between them. The great Modernist poet/literary critic T.

Miguel de cervantes novel