The Death and Life of Miguel de Cervantes: A NovelThe facts of Cervantes's life cry out for the epic treatment found in his comic masterpiece. Marlowe gives it to us. The backdrop is Renaissance Europe, a world alive with creative ferment, triple-crossing intrigue, and the passionate quest for novelty. Lofty tragedy and lyric poetry still reign as queens of the literary arts, but young writers heady with ambition seek live action to give substance to their teeming imaginations. It is scoundrel time, and the novel is in gestation. To enter Cervantes's world we cross a threshold that is Shakespearean and quixotic into a metaphysical wonderland where time expands to become space and vast vaulted distances bend back on themselves, where the threads of fiction and the strands of history shuttle back and forth in the great loom of the artist's imagination. Marlowe's Cervantes is a towering creation: flesh and blood and living legend, actor in and creator of the events in his own fantastical life story. He not only survives war, prison, torture, and poverty, he survives death itself, growing inexorably toward the writing of Don Quixote, which would bring both him and his character immortal fame. |
Contents
Prologue | 1 |
In Which My Grandfather Loses an Argument | 13 |
In Which the Crown Prince Falls Downstairs | 27 |
Copyright | |
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Al-Kuz Algiers Amadis of Gaul arms asked Aurelio Ollero Bench of If-Only Benengeli blood brother Rodrigo burnous called Catalina Cide Hamete Constanza conversos Cousin Gaspar crowd dark dead death Demogorgon Don Quixote Doña Leonor door Dorador dream ducats eyes face father Gabriel Múñoz Gimp the Greek girl Girón gold gypsy hair happened harquebus head hear heard janissaries Juan Rufo Juan the Obscure Juan-O knew left hand Llanllyfni look Lope Lope de Vega Luis Blackslave Madrid Magdalena Maimed Maltrapillo maravedís Micaela Miguel de Cervantes Mnemosyne Nameless never Nicolás de Ovando night nose Ovando Pacheco Portocarrero Pedro de Isunza Picapleitos Pierre Papin play Quillpusher ráwi Señor Sevilla shouted sister Andrea slave smile Spain Spanish Suleiman Sa'adah talk tall stone house Tasso tell There's thing told Torquato Tasso trying voice walked What's woman words YOUNG PRISONER Zoraida