Miguel de Cervantes

Introduction & Top Questions
Soldier and slave
Civil servant and writer
Publication of Don Quixote
Don Quixote and critical traditions
Importance and influence
Translations

Quotes References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images

Engraving of Miguel de Cervantes, shown with a mustache and beard, wearing a ruffled collar and cloak, based on works by Gregorio Ferro and Fernando Selma.

Engraved portrait of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, depicted with wavy hair, a pointed beard, a ruffled collar, and a buttoned doublet, seated with one arm resting forward.

An early edition of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra is open to the title page, showing ornate border designs and Spanish text printed in 1605.

Bronze statues of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza on horseback stand before a large stone sculpture of Miguel de Cervantes at Plaza de Espana in Madrid, Spain.

At a Glance

Miguel de Cervantes summary

Quizzes

Row of colorful books on a bookshelf. Stack of books, pile of books, literature, reading. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society

The Literary World

Illustration of "The Lamb" from "Songs of Innocence" by William Blake, 1879. poem; poetry

A Study of Poetry

4:043 Dickinson, Emily: A Life of Letters, This is my letter to the world/That never wrote to me; I'll tell you how the Sun Rose/A Ribbon at a time; Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul

Famous Poets and Poetic Form

Ernest Hemingway aboard the boat "Pilar", off Cuba. Ernest Hemingway American novelist and short-story writer, awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954.

Writer’s Block

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) only confirmed photograph of Emily Dickinson. 1978 scan of a Daguerreotype. ca. 1847; in the Amherst College Archives. American poet. See Notes:

Poetry: First Lines

Related Questions

Did Miguel de Cervantes attend a university?
Did Miguel de Cervantes begin planning Don Quixote while in prison?
Did Miguel de Cervantes have any children?
How did Miguel de Cervantes lose the use of his left hand?
How did Miguel de Cervantes parody chivalric romances in Don Quixote?
How did Miguel de Cervantes shape Spanish literature during the Golden Age?
How did Miguel de Cervantes’s captivity in Algiers influence his writing?
How did Miguel de Cervantes’s father earn a living?
How did the first English translation of Don Quixote help spread Cervantes’s fame?
How do Don Quixote and Sancho Panza differ in their views of reality?
How does Don Quixote include many different voices and viewpoints?
How does Don Quixote’s story end?
How long was Miguel de Cervantes held captive in Algiers?
How many times did Miguel de Cervantes attempt to escape from slavery in Algiers?
How was Miguel de Cervantes captured by Barbary pirates?
What are the Exemplary Stories by Miguel de Cervantes?
What collection of plays and comic interludes did Miguel de Cervantes publish in 1615?
What happened to Miguel de Cervantes at the Battle of Lepanto?
What is Miguel de Cervantes’s Viage del Parnaso about?
What was Miguel de Cervantes’s family background?
What was Miguel de Cervantes’s final novel, Persiles and Sigismunda?
What was Miguel de Cervantes’s first published poem about?
When and where did Miguel de Cervantes die?
When and where was Miguel de Cervantes born?
When was Don Quixote Part I published?
When was Don Quixote Part II published?
Where did Miguel de Cervantes receive his early education?
Where did Miguel de Cervantes serve as a soldier?
Which literary genres did Miguel de Cervantes write in?
Which major literary genre did Miguel de Cervantes not write?
Which other military campaigns did Miguel de Cervantes join after the Battle of Lepanto?
Which plays by Miguel de Cervantes are known to survive from his early career?
Which side did Miguel de Cervantes fight for at the Battle of Lepanto?
Who defeats Don Quixote as the Knight of the White Moon?
Who helped raise the money to free Miguel de Cervantes from captivity?
Who is Dulcinea del Toboso in Don Quixote?
Who was Juan López de Hoyos, and how was he connected to Miguel de Cervantes?
Who wrote the unauthorized sequel to Don Quixote?
Why are Don Quixote and Sancho Panza among the best-known fictional characters in literature?
Why did Miguel de Cervantes make little money from Don Quixote?
Why did Miguel de Cervantes struggle financially for much of his life?
Why did Miguel de Cervantes write plays during Spain’s Golden Age?
Why did Miguel de Cervantes’s captors demand a high ransom?
Why does Alonso Quixano rename himself Don Quixote?
Why does Don Quixote believe inns are castles?
Why is Don Quixote often considered the first modern novel?
What is Miguel de Cervantes best known for?
What was Miguel de Cervantes’s early life like?
Who was Rabindranath Tagore?
What is “Where the Mind Is Without Fear” by Rabindranath Tagore?
Did Rabindranath Tagore write the national anthem of India?
Why did Rabindranath Tagore refuse his knighthood?
What awards did Rabindranath Tagore win?
What influenced Graham Greene’s conversion to Roman Catholicism?
Why is Sylvia Plath important?
When was Sylvia Plath married?

Literature Novels & Short Stories Novelists A-K

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External Websites

Museo Casa Natal de Cervantes - Meet Cervantes
BBC - When Cervantes was captured by pirates
don Quijote - Miguel de Cervantes
NPR - The Reason Cervantes Asked To Be Buried Under A Convent
Spanish Books - Life of Miguel de Cervantes
Johns Hopkins University - The remarkable life of Miguel de Cervantes and how it shaped his timeless tale 'Don Quixote'
Academy of American Poets - Biography of Miguel de Cervantes
Columbia University - Miguel de Cervantes
American Ballet Theatre - Miguel de Cervantes

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Miguel de Cervantes - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Miguel de Cervantes

Spanish writer

Also known as: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Written by

Edward C. Riley

Emeritus Professor of Hispanic Studies, University of Edinburgh. Author of Cervantes's Theory of the Novel and others.

Edward C. RileyAll

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Oct. 2, 2026 •History

Miguel de Cervantes (born September 29?, 1547, Alcalá de Henares, Spain—died April 22, 1616, Madrid) was a Spanish novelist, playwright, and poet, the creator of Don Quixote (1605, 1615) and the most important and celebrated figure in Spanish literature. His novel Don Quixote has been translated, in full or in part, into more than 60 languages. Editions continue regularly to be printed, and critical discussion of the work has proceeded unabated since the 18th century....

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