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These twelve short novels by the author of Don Quixote are set in the Spain of his day: 'The Little Gipsy Girl', about a beautiful dancer for whom a young…
These twelve short novels by the author of Don Quixote are set in the Spain of his day: 'The Little Gipsy Girl', about a beautiful dancer for whom a young nobleman joins a band of gypsies; 'Rinconete and Cortadillo', two boy thieves who join a guild of criminals in Seville; 'The Licentiate Vidriera', a scholar who goes mad and believes he is made of glass; 'The Dialogue of the Dogs', in which two dogs in a hospital talk all night about their masters; and others of love, adventure and satire, among them 'The Generous Lover', set among the Turks in Cyprus.
Context and significance
Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) published the novels in 1613, between the two parts of Don Quixote, and called them 'exemplary' because each, he said, held a useful lesson. Cervantes had himself been a captive in Algiers for five years, and the Mediterranean world of his life appears in several stories. This translation is by Walter K. Kelly.
About the author
Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) lived a life as adventurous as any novel. As a soldier he was wounded at the naval battle of Lepanto in 1571 and lost the use of his left hand; on his way home he was captured by Barbary corsairs and spent five years as a captive in Algiers, where he tried to escape four times before he was ransomed.
Back in Spain he worked as a tax collector, went to prison more than once and wrote plays and stories with little success, until Don Quixote in 1605 made him famous. He died in Madrid in April 1616, the same month as Shakespeare. Memories of Algiers, and a pretend Arab historian, appear throughout his work.