The life of Miguel Cervantes is what can safely be called an adventure. He fought, was a prisoner of war, studied with enlightened minds and nowhere to learn, suffered, lost, served a couple of times in prison with a black dolphin for something he was not guilty of, worked up to his seventh sweat for the sake of his family and himself. Reading his biography, a person may get the impression that Cervantes really had a pain in the ass. The writer's ass was a mess. Spain, Italy, Africa. You can't help but wonder how he came up with the idea that he should write. He is a military man, he always said that the main duty is to give duty to the motherland. Even in the legendary novel, a whole chapter is devoted to this, where the preference for war is exhibited as a greater good than the thirst for peace.
This reasoning is controversial, and I cannot share it. But Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra is a man of ideas. It's useless to argue with such a man. And it is even more pointless to argue with the cunning hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha, aka the Knight of the Sad Image.
Miguel de Cervantes y Cortinas, later Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His novel Don Quixote is often considered his magnum opus, as well as the first modern novel.
There is probably no more ingenious couple in culture than this one. Don Quixote and his squire, Sancho Panza, is probably the funniest and yet, really witty combination of characters that could ever be formed in literature.
But, let's not be in a hurry, put the saddle on the donkey and gallop boldly off to meet the dangerous mills. First, to understand why this novel is so important, let's deal with the era. What was going on around when Cervantes lived?
Spain in the late 16th and early 17th century was experiencing great hardship. Because of the colonization of America, there was so much gold that money was rapidly losing value. People started to become poor. Many nobles of not the highest position, began to lose in finances and in the number of land plots. This was the fate of Cervantes' parents, because he was from a noble family.
The word hidalgo had been around before, but it was in literature that it became established as a designation for such nobles who had lost their former glory. Add to that the many wars, disease and fear of the invading Muslims. Religion was of great importance, and the Spanish Inquisition itself had a special status, different from those before it. People were constantly under stress not knowing what was going to happen tomorrow.
What could be an outlet for a simple man, what could distract him from the heavy thoughts and harsh reality? Of course, the Church, fairs, theatrical performances, various predictions of Nostradamus and his kind, and.... books. And the most popular genre was the chivalric novel.
Europe at the time had an avid fascination with Roland, Amadis of Gaul, Lancelot, and the rest. Often, these stories were more of a fairy tale. The events that took place in such novels almost always led to the same outcome. No “gray” morality for you, just black and white.
Cervantes knew this kind of literature very well. Admired the heroism of these knights, their notions of honor, high morality and service to the idea that whatever is done, it is in the name of God, he is therefore served to serve the fatherland.
But reality proved to be a good teacher. Having tasted all the delights of life, he realizes that everything that is written in books is very much in contrast to what the writer experienced himself.
Far from always the monarch will come to the aid of a loyal soldier, because before the writer's family could ransom him, it took five years in captivity.
Far from all Moors are immoral and savage.
And certainly not everywhere there is a decent knight to rescue an ordinary peasant girl. What's more, there are no knights left at all, bad or good.
And under such circumstances, in such conditions, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, who had already written something there, somewhere somehow tried in theater circles and not only, but with varying success, finally in 1605 releases his brainchild. And it was like an explosion!
He was lucky, because even during his lifetime the writer was appreciated by his contemporaries (though not all, the great poet and playwright, Lope de Vega, criticized Cervantes). Sales were enormous. Spain, and later the rest of Europe, read the adventures of the mad knight in droves. It was funny (it is still funny now, there are many scenes where at least you will smile), it was new (the novel clearly shows that knights in modern times are simply impossible, the fairy tale died in reality), it was brave (with a living Inquisition, for which the status of chivalry, praising the Lord, is very important).
It was so cool that Cervantes had copycats (at the time, a necessary evil, all successful writers faced “piracy”). Even False Quixote, a rather mediocre novel (rumored to have been practiced by the Inquisition), was being printed, which was certainly a blow to Cervantes. But he coped, and in 1615 the second part comes out, where everything is put in its place.
And it is the second part that has the greatest significance. In it, we realize that it's not so much Don Quixote who is mad, but the world around him. That in reality, somehow the concepts of honor, dignity, modesty do not always work. Quixote is joked at, framed, and his squire is beaten and bullied as they wish.
Alonso Quijano, already lying on his bed, in his dying hour realizes that striving for that fairy tale, for something higher is simply impossible. Yes, we can aspire to the light in our hearts, but we cannot ignore the complexity of our world.
That's how realism was born. The very genre in which Zola, Dickens, Maupassant, Flaubert, Gogol, Lermontov, ... will be widely deployed.
Now to read Quixote can be someone who is ready to put up with “velerichavost', pompousness in the work. Clearly, this is done and because the novel is written in the same style as the stories about knights:
“Her charm is supernatural, for in her are embodied all the incredible and imaginary signs of beauty with which poets endow their lovers: her hair is gold, her forehead is the Champs Elysees, her eyebrows are the rainbows of heaven, her eyes are two suns, her lanits are roses, her mouth is coral, pearls are her teeth, alabaster is her neck, marble is her peaches, ivory is her hands, the whiteness of her skin is snow, the same parts of the body, which chastity hides from human eyes, as far as I understand and imagine, are such that the modest imagination has the right only to admire them, to liken them to anything, it is not able to”.
The book has a lot of reasoning, sayings (let's say thanks to Sancho Panza, the master of this genre so to speak). But nevertheless, not to note the fact that it still brings a smile, and some quotes make you think - I can not:
“As much as you have is as much as you are worth, and as much as you have is as much as you are worth.”
“ - You're deft, I see,” said Don Quixote.
And unhappy,” said Quinés. - Misfortune pursues men of talent unceasingly.
Misfortune follows the wretches,” corrected the commissioner.
“On the smoothest road there are bumps and potholes,” said Sancho, ”people are still cooking beans, but I have a cauldron full of them; madness, I know, has more companions and servants than wisdom.
“God grant you, senor, to print all your books, but will you be able to tell me,” and, indeed, how could you not, for you know everything, ”who first scratched his head? I say it was Adam, our forefather.
- Perhaps,” agreed the student. - Adam had both a head and hair, there's no question about that, and when he did, he must have scratched himself sometimes, and he was the first man on earth.
- I think so too,” said Sancho, ”and now tell me, who was the first acrobat in the world?
- To tell you the truth, my friend,” said the student, ”I cannot answer this question now, it requires special study. I will take it up at home, I have all the books at hand, and when I see you again I shall be able to give you a satisfactory explanation; I hope this will not be the last time we meet.
- Listen, senor, don't trouble yourself,' said Sancho, 'I have already guessed it myself. For your information, the first acrobat in the world was Lucifer: when he was cast down and thrown from heaven, he tumbled all the way to the underworld.
- That's true, buddy,” the student said.
The book describes a horrible scene. In it, books are burned, or rather, the very chivalric novels that damaged the mind of the story's protagonist. After Cervantes' “The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha”, the genre of the chivalric novel in Europe disappeared just as quickly. It was destroyed by the bravest and probably the craziest, wittiest, kindest and, alas, the last knight of the era.
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