The Man Who Invented Fiction
How Cervantes Ushered in the Modern World
1st Edition
Published on 16. June 2016
272 pages
978-1-4088-4386-4 (ISBN)
Description
'In 1605 a crippled, greying, almost toothless veteran of Spain's wars against the Ottoman Empire published a book. That book, Don Quixote, went on to sell more copies than any other book beside the Bible, making its author, Miguel de Cervantes, the most widely read author in human history. Cervantes did more than just publish a bestseller, though. He invented a way of writing.'
In Cervantes' time, 'fiction' was synonymous with a lie. Books were either history, and true, or 'poetry' which might be invented, but had to conform to strict principles. Don Quixote tells the story of a poor nobleman, addled from reading too many books on chivalry, who deludes himself that he is a knight errant and sets off to put the world to rights. The book was hugely entertaining, broke the existing rules, devised a new set and, in the process, created a new, modern hybrid form we know today as the novel.
The Man Who Invented Fiction explores Cervantes's life and the world he lived in, showing how his life and influences converged in his work, and how his work - especially Don Quixote - radically changed the nature of literature and created a new way of viewing the world. Finally, it explains how that worldview went on to infiltrate art, politics and science, and how the world today would be unthinkable without it.
In Cervantes' time, 'fiction' was synonymous with a lie. Books were either history, and true, or 'poetry' which might be invented, but had to conform to strict principles. Don Quixote tells the story of a poor nobleman, addled from reading too many books on chivalry, who deludes himself that he is a knight errant and sets off to put the world to rights. The book was hugely entertaining, broke the existing rules, devised a new set and, in the process, created a new, modern hybrid form we know today as the novel.
The Man Who Invented Fiction explores Cervantes's life and the world he lived in, showing how his life and influences converged in his work, and how his work - especially Don Quixote - radically changed the nature of literature and created a new way of viewing the world. Finally, it explains how that worldview went on to infiltrate art, politics and science, and how the world today would be unthinkable without it.
More details
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Illustrations
B&W images throughout
ISBN-13
978-1-4088-4386-4 (9781408843864)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
06/2016
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
€50.95
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Person
William Egginton is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and chair of the Department of German and Romance Languages and Literatures at Johns Hopkins University. Egginton is the author six highly praised books, including How the World Became a Stage, and writes for the digital salon Arcade, published by Stanford University, he has written popular essays for The Stone, an online forum for contemporary philosophers published by the New York Times. He is fluent in English, German, Spanish, French, and Italian. Egginton lives in Baltimore and in Vienna, Austria.
Content
- Intro
- Dedication
- Title
- Contents
- Introduction: Within and Without
- 1. Poetry and History
- 2. Open and Closed
- 3. Soldier of Misfortune
- 4. A Captive Imagination
- 5. All the World's a Stage
- 6. Of Shepherds, Knights, and Ladies
- 7. A Rogue's Gallery
- 8. The Fictional World
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on the Sources
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- A Note on the Author
- By the Same Author
- Copyright
