Books by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547–1616) was a Spanish novelist, playwright, and poet universally recognized as the towering literary figure of the Spanish Golden Age and the creator of the first modern novel, Don Quixote. Leading an adventurous, turbulent life, Cervantes fought heroically at the naval Battle of Lepanto in 1571, where he suffered severe wounds that permanently crippled his left hand, before being captured by Ottoman corsairs and enduring five harrowing years of imprisonment in Algiers. His immortal masterpiece, El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha (published in two parts in 1605 and 1615), chronicled the comic and poignant adventures of an aging country gentleman who loses his sanity reading chivalric romances and sets out as a knight-errant alongside his pragmatic squire, Sancho Panza. Blending meta-fictional satire, psychological realism, and profound compassion, Cervantes forever reshaped Western narrative prose and established the modern novel's foundations.