Line #5 Creator/MiguelDeCervantes


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/miguel_de_cervantes_madrid.jpg]]
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3	The man almost automatically known in Western sources (including this very Wiki) as "Author of ''Literature/DonQuixote''."
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5	Which is a little unfair, because he wrote several other novels, along with plays, short stories, and poetry, many of which are also considered Spanish literary classics in their own right by academics. But hey, if you're going to be famous for just one thing, you can do worse than writing what is often regarded as the first modern novel, the most famous ''and'' best Spanish language novel, one of the most influential books in world literature, and the most translated book in the world apart from Literature/TheBible.
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7	Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (circa 29 September 1547 – 22 April 1616) actually had quite an interesting life. He was born in Alcalá de Henares, UsefulNotes/{{Spain}} (a town close to UsefulNotes/{{Madrid}} that still exists today), the son of a poor barber-surgeon, some time around late September 1547; given [[UsefulNotes/PatronSaints the custom of the time of naming children after the saint whose feast day they were born on]], it was likely on the 29th, the feast day of [[ArchangelMichael Saint Michael the Archangel]]. He seems to have picked up a bit of education without learning [[SmartPeopleKnowLatin the Latin that he needed to make it fully respectable]], and then in 1569 he went off to Rome to further his artistic studies, landing a job working for a cardinal.
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9	A true WarriorPoet, in 1570 he joined the Spanish marines, which meant that in 1571, he fought under UsefulNotes/JohnOfAustria in the historic UsefulNotes/BattleOfLepanto -- where Cervantes, refusing to opt out of the battle due to an illness, fought bravely and took not less than three gunshot wounds, one of which left his left arm useless for the rest of his life and earned him the nickname he would be famous for: ''el Manco de Lepanto'' ("the One-Arm Man of Lepanto"). Having earned John's personal respect, he continued to serve as a soldier for a few years (suggesting that he was also bit of a HandicappedBadass), before he was captured by Ottoman pirates in 1575 and MadeASlave in Algeria for five years. Cervantes, by this point a true {{Determinator}} but certainly not the luckiest man alive, attempted to escape five times. His life was spared each time because his captors had originally found him with a letter of reward from John of Austria and believed he was a VIP to be kept alive.
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11	Fortunately, he was eventually ransomed, and returned to Spain. He then launched his literary career, while supporting himself by working as a royal tax collector and a purchasing agent for the Spanish Armada -- which led to him spending a short stint in prison on suspicion of involvement in some kind of fraud.
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13	He published the first part of ''Literature/DonQuixote'' in 1605, although he only wrote it to mock books of chivalry, a genre he utterly despised, given his troubled experiences as a soldier and as a slave, which were a far cry from the glamorized life of adventure depicted in those stories. However, and despite the fact that critics of his time didn't care for the book too much, it was an unprecedented success, quickly becoming a popular culture juggernaut across the entire Spanish Empire -- something about which he had mixed feelings, since at the time, respectable fame and money were in stage plays rather than prose, and he was only mildly successful in that genre, always overshadowed by other Spanish dramatists of the period, particularly his contemporary and SitcomArchNemesis, Creator/LopeDeVega.
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15	However, the huge success of ''Don Quixote'' over the next 10 years was unprecedented, kickstarting the process whereby the novel became the most prevalent form of written storytelling, and providing him with fame that made his contemporaries jealous. It didn't make him too wealthy, though, but at least he got the attention of a patron, which allowed him to dedicate himself to literature for the rest of his life.
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17	Cervantes started to write a sequel after a few years, but then he abandoned the project for a while. That is, until an unofficial sequel written by one Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda (a pseudonym -- nobody knows for sure who that writer was, albeit some people think it was Lope himself) made him return to the book, which he published in 1615, with pretty much the same results as the first: critics didn't care for it, readers loved it.
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19	Cervantes didn't get enjoy the success of Don Quixote for too long, though, since he died in 1616, one year after the publication of the second part, probably of type 2 diabetes caused by cirrhosis of the liver (though he doesn't seem to have been an alcoholic). Although he died grateful that in his twilight years he acquired such fame that people ''[[Main/{{Squee}} literally stopped him on the streets]] when realising who he was'', he never received in life the type of wealth and fame he dreamed of.
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21	Cervantes is considered ''hugely'' important in the history of Spanish literature, and one of the best authors, if not THE best author the language has to offer. Hence, he tends to show up in a lot of historical, AlternateHistory, and TimeTravel stories, from ''Theatre/ManOfLaMancha'' to ''Series/TheMinistryOfTime''.
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23	His influence tends to be compared to that of his close contemporary, Creator/WilliamShakespeare[[note]]Fun fact: they died the same year, only ten days apart. Some people think they died ''the same day'', albeit this is just a misunderstanding born from the fact that Spain and England used different calendars at the time.[[/note]], in English, right down to the fact that his body of work is part of any basic education program in all Spanish-speaking countries, and that quoting his books is considered a sign of a well-read and cultured person.

Context Creator / MiguelDeCervantes