The Man Who Invented Fiction: how Cervantes ushered in the modern world
WILLIAM EGGINTON
This reconstruction of the life of Miguel de Cervantes shows that at every stage of their development, his writings were influenced by their author’s experience. William Egginton goes on to make an extraordinary claim: the man who wrote Don Quixote, he insists, is the “inventor” of fiction.
Even before he left Spain in 1569 at the age of 21, Cervantes had made a name for himself as a poet of promise. He was badly wounded while fighting bravely at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. On the way back to Spain he was captured by Ottoman pirates and taken to Algiers, where he was to remain a prisoner for five years. His attempts to gain favour at the court of Philip II were met with frustration. After a short stint as a spy in North Africa, he wrote more than 30 plays to high critical acclaim until he found himself up against the most successful playwright of all time, Félix Lope de Vega, “that monster of nature”, as Cervantes famously called him.
