REVIEWS

“Don Quixote, famously, is the first major work of Western literature to take ordinary human life for its subject—specifically, a life that is replete with accidents, fiascoes, and indignities—and make it over into something luminous with meaning. It does so without pomp or sententiousness—it's the friendliest and least formal of all the Great Books—yet will overwhelm you, in the end, with its moral and imaginative splendor."—Atlantic Monthly

MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA (1547–1616), novelist, playwright, and poet, was born in Spain of an ancient but impoverished family. After studying in Madrid, he became a soldier and was wounded in battle. He was taken by pirates in 1575, put in prison at Algiers, and was ransomed five years later. He spent the remainder of his life struggling to earn a livelihood from literature and humble government employment. His first attempt at fiction was a pastoral novel, La Galatea (1585), which was followed by his masterpiece, The Adventures of Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605).