No Ordinary Man: The Life and Times of Miguel de Cervantes

By Donald P. McCrory

Book Overview

"A fascinating story."--Choice
"A remarkable achievement."--Sunday Herald
For the general reader, as well as students and historians, this absorbing study chronicles the life and work of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616). World-renowned as the author of Don Quixote, the "Spanish Shakespeare" led an adventurous and fruitful life that encompassed widely disparate roles--spy, lover, soldier, hostage, tax collector, poet, playwright, and, most notably, creator of the first European novel.
This biography is based on new original research, and incorporates previously unpublished material on Cervantes' long period of captivity in Algiers; also, his involvement with piracy in the Mediterranean and with espionage and the Spanish Armada; and his work as an agent of the Spanish government. Containing significant details never before available in English, it is an important contribution to the understanding of a unique literary figure.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486453618
• ISBN13: 9780486453613
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.92 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

The Best Bio of Cervantes I've read.

I really find this an astonishing biography. The best of Cervantes I've read. I'm only halfway through it now but I know two things for sure: every last scintilla of telling information about Cervantes is up-to-date and included, and, that Prof. McCrory has a superb ability to find those larger patterns in a life and give them emotional and psychological meaning. There are moments when you look up and marvel at the tons of documents that must've been sifted to produce the simplest facts. Just to give one example among many, I understand for the first time what living in Esquivias meant to Cervantes, what it must've been like for him, and especially interesting, what it meant to be married to him. Prof. McCrory gives us an uncanny sense of what Catalina`s life was like, her financial and social situation, the impact her mother had on the marriage - and all this in a few quick lines. One never bogs down in this book with all that background information about Philip II or the Armada or the state of banditry along this road or that, as is common in other bios of Cervantes. We always know just enough to place things in context and see the influences acting on poor Miguel. I get, for the first time, a sense of his thought processes, the decisions he had to make, his real options, what the world looked like to him. This is (as much as possible) an intellectual biography as well. Superb work.

CERVANTES-THE GENIUS OF ALL WRITERS!

I HAVE BEEN A CERVANTES SCHOLAR ALL OF MY LIFE AND HAVE READ ALMOST ALL THE BIOGRAPHIES OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST WRITER.THIS BOOK DOES JUSTICE TO HIS LIFE!THE DETAILS OF EVERY ASPECT OF CERVANTES'LIFE ARE ALL HERE.I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO ALL WHO LOVE DON QUIJOTE AND THE GREAT MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA!!!!!!!