Miguel de Cervantes was born in 1547 in Alcalá de Henares, a little town outside of Madrid. Following a brief period of study in Madrid, where he published a few short works of poetry, inspired by a short-lived sojourn to Rome. He enlisted in the army of the Holy league, established by the Catholic kingdoms of Europe in response to the expansion of the Ottoman Empire. He was permanently wounded in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, and after a year-long recovery, returned to military service in the employ of Juan of Austria.
His military career holds not many but significant achievements. He was held as a slave in Algiers for five years, and was jailed in Seville in 1597. It was during his time in prison that he conceived of Don Quixote. In 1605, the first part of Don Quixote was published and enjoyed immediate success, marking Cervantes’s foray into writing.
Cervantes wrote in nearly all of the literary genres popular at the time. He tried his hand, rather unsuccessfully, at poetry. He wrote several plays (El trato de Argel and El cerco de Numancia, 1582), which enjoyed relative success. His most well-known theatrical accomplishment is his collection Eight Comedies and Eight New Interludes, Never Before Acted, published in 1612.
He wrote a pastoral novel, La Galatea, in 1585. This publication was supposed to be only Part I of a larger work; however, despite his promises, he never returned to write the second, concluding part of the Galatea.
He went on to publish his famous Novelas ejemplares (1613), where he is credited with making important advances in the novella genre (a genre popularised by Boccaccio).
Since perhaps before the publication of Don Quixote, Part I, Cervantes was at work composing what he would consider to be his masterpiece, The Trials of Persiles and Sigismunda, which Cervantes would complete right before his death, and which would be published posthumously in 1617.
Novelas Ejemplares
Miguel de Cervantes's Novelas ejemplares, a collection of short stories in the tradition of Boccaccio, has a solid foundation in the history of Golden Age Spain.
The novelas offer us a glimpse of Cervantes's Spain and are about the social, political, and historical problems of the time. Ricapitc shows how Cervantes fictionalizes the problems of unpopular minorities like Gypsies and conversos (Jewish converts to Catholicism); the difficulties of social mobility in a Christian setting; the presence in society of differing and even outlandish individuals; and the oppressive role of honor in a time when people’s voices were on a rise which would later lead to revolution.
There are eleven short stories, and they all can be summed up of a moralistic nature, hence their description of copies.
1-The little gypsy
It is about a young woman named Preciosa, who lives with a group of gypsies, she is blonde and blue-eyed and amazes everyone with her grace when singing and dancing.
2-The Liberal Lover
Among the exemplary novels , Liberal Lover is one of the best known and deals with Ricardo and Leonisa agreeing on a journey that will take them to new lands. Ricardo is a young businessman and Leonisa is going to meet her fiancé Cornelio
3-Rinconete and Cortadillo
Two boys barely sixteen years old named Pedro del Rincón and Diego Cortado meet at an inn on the way from Toledo to Andalusia, both have fled their homes away from mistreatment and hard necessities of life. They are ragged but maintain an appearance of gentlemen's clothing, they make themselves known and soon become friends and decide to continue their journey together to the city of Seville where they do not doubt they will find work.
4-The English Spanish
An English nobleman named Clotaldo finds a girl of about seven years old during the sacking of the city of Cádiz in 1569, although her parents quickly raise the alarm for the disappearance of the girl, Clotaldo manages to hide her and take her out of Cádiz taking her to England there. Together with his wife, to whom he gives as a present the beautiful girl that has been brought back from the expedition, and his son Ricardo, who at the time was about ten or twelve years old, they welcome the young Isabel as one more daughter.
5 - The force of blood
A nobleman returns home after a picnic with his family: his wife, a daughter of about sixteen years and a small boy, on the way they come across a group of young gentlemen, the main one of which notices the beautiful beauty of the girl and decides to possess her.
6 - The jealous Extremaduran
It tells us the life of an Extremaduran nobleman named Filipo de Carrizales who, after going bankrupt, going to the Indies and once again rich, but already almost sixty-eight years old, one day discovers a fourteen-year-old girl named Leonora and, although it was not in his plans, he decides to marry her.
7 - The graduate stained glass window
Two gentlemen from Malaga walking along the banks of the Tormes in Salamanca see a boy, in peasant clothes, who is asleep under a tree, they wake him up and the boy tells them that his name is Tomás Rodaja, that he knows how to read and write and that He is looking for a master who will allow him to study at the University of Salamanca. The gentlemen are very impressed by the boy's attitude and take him into their service, facilitating his studies.
8 - The illustrious mop
Diego de Carriazo, a young man of about thirteen or fourteen years old, from a wealthy family in Burgos, has a great fondness for picaresque so he decides to flee his home and visit other lands, it is known that he passed through Madrid and continued to the south, settling in Almadraba from Zahara there through lands of Cadiz. He lived happily dealing and living as a rogue, until he got tired and took advantage of some gambling winnings to return home and dress as a gentleman again.
9 - The two maidens
Near Seville in a place called Castilblanco a handsome young man arrives at an inn, gets off his horse and asks for a room for himself, the innkeeper tells him that she only has one free room but it has two beds and if another client arrives she will not ask him. may prevent you from using the remaining bed. The young man insists and pays him both in order to be alone.
10 - The deceitful marriage
The play begins with Lieutenant Campuzano leaving the Resurrection Hospital in Valladolid, but so dry, battered and weak that he must lean on his sword to be able to walk, he meets his friend Mr. Peralta who is amazed to see him in such a state.
11 - The Colloquium of the dogs
While the soldier in the previous work suffers in the hospital from the treatment of his syphilis, he hears at night how two dogs talk about their things, about their previous masters and tell about their bad deeds and bad habits that they have had to suffer.
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