Miguel de Cervantes lost the use of his left hand at the Battle of Lepanto, spent five years as a prisoner of Barbary pirates, failed at every career he attempted, and went to prison for financial irregularities. Then, at fifty-seven, broke and bitter, he published Don Quixote — the book that invented the modern novel. The man who created the most influential work of fiction in Western literature considered himself a failure for most of his life.
This episode traces Cervantes from his soldier years through captivity, career failures, and the late-life masterpiece that transformed European literature and gave the world its most enduring comic hero.
The Battle of Lepanto, the maiming of his left hand, and the five years of captivity in Algiers
The failed careers — tax collecting, provisioning the Armada — and the prison time that followed
The publication of Don Quixote at fifty-seven and the immediate sensation it caused across Europe
The unauthorized sequel by another writer and Cervantes's furious genuine Part Two
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