I'm sure there are many posters here who know more than I do about Cervantes and the times in which he lived, which were tumultuous times. Here's the place to share what you know or are learning.

A few tidbits I have picked up so far:

He was roughly contemporary with Shakespeare -- born earlier, but died on the same date (but not the same day -- the English and Spanish were using slightly different calendars).

He originally didn't aspire to be a writer, but to be a soldier. Some writers only read or talk about what they write about (e.g. Shakespeare; there's no indication that he ever went to Greece or Italy, that he ever was in a ship, etc., but he wrote convincingly about those), while some live what they write. Cervantes was one of the latter. He fought in the battle of Lepanto, which was significantly responsible for stopping the Islamic advance further into Spain. He was wounded in the left hand. On the way home he was captured (by Barbary pirates?) and spent five years in prison (or as a slave, accounts I have read differ) before being ransomed. But he was a ruined man, and it was in debtor's prison that he apparently started writing DQ, which was published when he was 58.

He lived through the great years of Spanish conquest in the Americas (which many commentators say is reflected in DQ; let's look for those references) and also though the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

There's lots more interesting about his life, which is much better documented than that of Shakespeare, and the times in which he lived (I haven't even touched on the religious situation). What have others found?

Apparently, he also attempted to make a living as a writer, but failed prior to writing Don Quixote. He was envious of the success of one of his rivals, Lope de Vega.

Also, was he in debtor's prison or just prison? Around that time he was a purchasing agent for the Spanish fleet, specifically the infamous Armada. Some accounts indicate that he was incarcerated for "irregularities in his accounts," suggesting embezzlement rather than debt. On the other hand, he is also described as being bankrupt. Just curious.

I think he may have wanted more than a career as a soldier. I think that was a step on the way towards better things. There is a lot of evidence that he was a converso, a Jew who was forced by the inquisition to convert to Catholocism. Hidden in the text are many references to the Hebrew bible that a Catholic would not have known. Hebrew prayers too. The book is full of veiled criticisms of the church. I think he thought that by being a loyal and valiant hero in the war he would have earned his way but his Jewish background kept him back. He would have liked (like Sancho) a position in the New World. That was not to be.

there are many articles on line but I just googled one "is there a hidden Jewish meaning in Don Quixote?" Sorry that I don't know how to post a link but it's easy enough to google it.

Patrice wrote: "there are many articles on line but I just googled one "is there a hidden Jewish meaning in Don Quixote?" Sorry that I don't know how to post a link but it's easy enough to google it.
"

Here it is, Patrice:
http://www.h-net.org/~cervantes/csa/arti...
You just highlight and copy the address of the article (control-C) and then copy it into the comment form (control-V).

Patrice wrote: "There is a lot of evidence that he was a converso, a Jew who was forced by the inquisition to convert to Catholicism. Hidden in the text are many references to the Hebrew bible that a Catholic would not have known."

That's fascinating, and something I haven't run across before.

I just ran across a mention that Shakespeare wrote, with John Fletcher, a play, The History of Cardenio, which doesn't survive but which is known to have been performed, which was based on Don Quixote. Has anybody else heard of this?

Laurele wrote: "Patrice wrote: "there are many articles on line but I just googled one "is there a hidden Jewish meaning in Don Quixote?" Sorry that I don't know how to post a link but it's easy enough to google ..."

Very Interesting!

I have heard of The History of Cardenio but I didn't know it referred to Cervantes. There aren't many references to the play.

The question whether Cervantes (or his family) was a converso is, from what I'm reading, a theory based on interpretations of some facts of his life but isn't established. Harold Bloom rejects the contention, but he really isn't a Cervantes scholar, so he isn't IMO the authority.

It does raise some issues which we might have in mind as we read the book. If he was a converso, that might lead to a different view of some passages.

It totally changes the the reading of the book.
.

Here are two more links:

http://www.njjewishnews.com/njjn.com/031... MenschofLaMancha.html

http://www.ejpress.org/article/26561

I apologize for not being able to copy the links.

The evidence is circumstantial but there is a lot of it.

I've never read a book from a "literary critic" perspective before. Generally, even when reading "classics," I have never gone deeply into them. Therefore, this is all very new and interesting.

First and foremost, thanks for the great links. Very interesting reading. I do, however, have a question. Is this a fairly typical approach to literary analysis ... looking for hidden meanings in works or are are those who find hidden meanings in the books more along the lines of conspiracy theorists? or, is the idea to gain a better understanding of the author in order to interpret the work, ala, Patrice's comment: "It totally changes the reading of the book."

I'll tell you from my perspective. I read this book with a class of adults. I had never read the book before. Two of my classmates were very well versed in Hebrew texts. One is the daughter of an Orthodox rabbi and the other is a father of a rabbi. I have no knowledge of Hebrew. As we read the book the two of them, simultaneously, would recognize certain Hebrew prayers and texts. There is one speech that DQ makes, that they both agreed was a word for word translation of something from the "Ethics of the Fathers". I took their word for it. There were other parts that were translated prayers and others who were familiar with them would nod in agreement. So, I'm just taking their expertise to heart. I was skeptical at first but the evidence seemed to mount to the point that I was convinced. Remember that if Cervantes came out openly as a Jew he would have been killed or deported.

I've been thinking about Harold Bloom. Of all the critics I've read he's the one I agree with most when it comes to DQ. I am wondering though, how knowledgible he is of Hebrew texts. I can't imagine anyone who was not intimately familiar with them recognizing them in DQ. I certainly would never have known. But once you see it, it adds an incredible level of irony. I won't say anymore until we're into the text.

I think of this book as though it's an onion. You can keep peeling away layers and there's another one underneath. I do worry if I'm finding things that aren't there but that's the beauty of discussion. You know the saying "no two people read the same book?" I think it's particularly true of this one. We can all call each other on our "discoveries".

As for critics, personally, I like to read the work first. Then, when I get an idea about what I'm reading, I like to see if anyone else has had the same idea. It's like a discussion really. When it came to DQ I had to search hard, until I found Harold Bloom, who seemed to see what I saw in DQ.

Laljit wrote: "I've never read a book from a "literary critic" perspective before....
I do, however, have a question. Is this a fairly typical approach to literary analysis ... looking for hidden meanings in works or are are those who find hidden meanings in the books more along the lines of conspiracy theorists? or, is the idea to gain a better understanding of the author in order to interpret the work, ala, Patrice's comment: "It totally changes the reading of the book."

Yes, it's a fairly common approach to literary analysis.

Sometimes it is indeed "hidden" meanings, some so deeply hidden that it seems to me, at least, very dubious that they're really there. (Some of the feminist criticism that has sprung up in the past few decades falls into this category.)

However, in other cases it's not so much hidden meanings as meanings understood by people who had the same information set that the author did, or who understand certain literary "codes." In reading classics, for example, modern readers often miss a lot of the references that would have been well recognized by educated readers of the author's era (keep in mind that in the time of Milton, Shakespeare, etc. there were probably only a few hundred core books that educated people were expected to know, first and foremost the Bible.) And there were historical events going on that the readers of the day understood but later readers may not. For example, such topics in English novels as the Corn Laws, the Reform Acts (there were two), etc. were very prominent to them but aren't to us. (In three hundred years, will a book written in 1990 in which a character remembers his response to Kennedy's assassination have the same resonance that it does for older readers today? Will they have any concept of what it means to view a person's Facebook page, Twitter them, etc.?)

Literary criticism is a whole field -- actually, a whole series of fields -- all its own, but one book I did enjoy reading was "How to Read Literature like a Professor" by Thomas Foster. Maybe worth borrowing from the library and skimming to get some idea of what one professor looks for.

Everyman wrote: Literary criticism is a whole field -- actually, a whole series of fields -- all its own, but one book I did enjoy reading was "How to Read Literature like a Professor" by Thomas Foster. Maybe worth borrowing from the library and skimming to get some idea of what one professor looks for. "

Thanks for the explanation. I think I actually own that book, but haven't cracked it open. Will have to do so. Thanks for the reminder that I have it collecting dust.

In case others also want to look at it, here's a link:



How to Read Literature Like a Professor A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines