Cervantes dictionary

BOOK REVIEW

CERVANTES DICTIONARY

Author: Jean Canavaggio From the reader report by: Livia Deorsola

Diccionario Cervantes is a monumental work, an absolute overview of all the historical circumstances and personalities, schools, critical and artistic reception, characters, life passages, places, and works that surround the great figure of Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), considered to be the founder of the modern novel in the Western.

Cervantes’ bibliography has been exhaustive, but few bring together in a single work all of the threads surrounding the gimpy man of Lepanto. By the very nature of the genre, this is not an indepth study of the work, or even a biography study, but a tightly knit web of what is essential to an overview on the author.

In the prologue to Dicionário, its organizer Jean Canavaggio, French biographer and former Professor Emeritus of Spanish literature at the Western University of Paris Nanterre La Défense, warns: the purpose was not to bring novelties to studies on Cervantes, but to offer reliable data, stripped of the legends that surround Cervantes. The edition is composed of more than 130 entries, and offers a nice gallery of high-quality images that illustrate some of these entries.

Importantly, there are several entries about the author’s family background, which help clearing up little-known passages of his life, and shed light on the people who helped forge his personality. Additionally, the book refers to the cities he passed through, the military campaigns he was part of, and his imprisonment in Algiers. Also not to be missed are his intellectual background and the characteristics of the Spain of his time.

PUBLISHED IN NEW SPANISH BOOKS BR

CENTRO DE ESTUDIOS EUROPA HISPÁNICA

Title CERVANTES DICTIONARY Diccionario Cervantes

Author Jean Canavaggio Genre Social sciences and religion Pages 512

ISBN 978-84-15245-95-7 Year of publication 2020 Number of editions 1 Language Spanish Spanish retail price 50.00 €

Author’s biography: Jean Canavaggio is a French hispanist and emeritus professor at the Nanterre University of Paris and is one of the most internationally well-respected experts on Cervantes. Among his contributions to this field of study is the book, Cervantes (1986, latest edition: 2015). He coordinated the production of Historia de la literatura española (A History of Spanish literature; 1994-1995) and collaborated on an edition of Don Quixote directed by Fransisco Rico. He led a project to translate the prose works of Cervantes into French, which was edited in 2001 by the Pléiade Library, as well as producing his own translation of Don Quixote, published in the same collection in 2015. He is also the author of Les Espagnes de Mérimée (Mérimée’s portrayal of the Spanish; 2016). He is a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of History, Madrid. In 2017 he received the Great Cross of Alfonso X the Wise (Gran Cruz de Alfonso X el Sabio).

Synopsis: This dictionary offers the opportunity to explore the life and work of Cervantes through more than 130 voices reflecting diverse areas of the author’s life including: his family, the cities where he lived, his military exploits, and his time as a captive in Algiers, his attitudes to the world and the Spain of his era, his literary work and posthumous fame. Here, several controversial questions are carefully questioned, for example, concerning Cervantes’ origins, his flight to Italy, his attempts to hide, his lovers, his time in prison, his ideological leanings, his lost works and those attributed to him, his disappointment as a poet, and his frustration in the face of the success of his luckier rivals. Naturally, Don Quixote has a special, well-deserved place in this book, as Cervantes’ master work and due to its influence on those who have read it ever since it was first published to modern times, including many musicians, cinematographers, critics, and novelists.

Publisher: Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica S.L. Independently or in collaboration with universities and museums both in Spain and abroad, the CEEH publishes several art-history collections comprising work of high academic quality, including essays, doctoral theses, conference proceedings, and exhibition catalogues.

Publishing rights available from: Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica (CEEH). - CIF B84304740 Felipe IV, 12. Madrid www.ceeh.es Contact: Esther Serra [info@ceeh.es] Phone: (+34) 913 692 254

Countries where the rights have been sold: France: Éditions Bartillat, París.