The Man Who Invented Fiction : How Cervantes Ushered in the Modern World
by William Egginton
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Description
"In the early seventeenth century, a crippled, graying, almost toothless veteran of Spain's wars against the Ottoman Empire published a book. It was the story of a poor nobleman, his brain addled from reading too many books of chivalry, who deludes himself that he is a knight errant and sets off on hilarious adventures. That book, Don Quixote, went on to sell more copies than any other book beside the Bible, making its author, Miguel de Cervantes, the single most-read author in human show more history. Cervantes did more than just publish a bestseller, though. He invented a way of writing. This book is about how Cervantes came to create what we now call fiction, and how fiction changed the world."-- show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Interesting ideas. I liked how the author pulled in political and social history to underline Cervantes's more subtle points. This does a lot to open Don Quixote up to a modern reader.
In this book William Egginton argues his point pretty well. Of course there were other works that predate Don Quixote that were fiction, but Cervantes took the genre to a new level by adding elements that would become part and parcel of fiction.
Back in my high school Spanish course I had heard some things about Cervantes, and I got to see The Man of La Mancha, but I didn't really retain as much as I should have. This covers a good deal of the life of Miguel Cervantes and talks about how his life experiences contributed to his creative genius.
It was pretty well done, but there isn't much to say that wasn't put in the blurb, so I give it 4 out of 5.
Back in my high school Spanish course I had heard some things about Cervantes, and I got to see The Man of La Mancha, but I didn't really retain as much as I should have. This covers a good deal of the life of Miguel Cervantes and talks about how his life experiences contributed to his creative genius.
It was pretty well done, but there isn't much to say that wasn't put in the blurb, so I give it 4 out of 5.
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Published Reviews
"...interested in what Cervantes' life reveals about how Don Quixote came to be, and how it might prove...that Quixote... offers a first definition of what fiction is and what it does."
added by charl08
Author Information
16+ Works 491 Members
William Egginton is Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures at the Johns Hopkins University
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Man Who Invented Fiction : How Cervantes Ushered in the Modern World
- Original title
- The Man Who Invented Fiction : How Cervantes Ushered in the Modern World
- People/Characters
- Miguel de Cervantes
Classifications
- Genres
- Literature Studies and Criticism, Nonfiction, Fiction and Literature, Biography & Memoir
- DDC/MDS
- 863.3 — Literature & rhetoric Spanish Literature Spanish fiction Spanish Golden Age (1499-1681)
- LCC
- PQ6353 .E33 — Language and Literature French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese literatures Spanish literature Individual authors and works to 1700
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 81
- Popularity
- 391,500
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.64)
- Languages
- English, Greek, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 2
