In our display case we have a total of 12 books, there’s also a poster in the background and a statue of Don Quixote in the front. Three books that stood out to me are, “Cervantes” by Francisco Navarro Ledesma, “Bloom’s Modern Critical Views: Miguel De Cervantes” by Harold Bloom and “The Interludes of Cervantes” by Griswold  Morley.

“Cervantes” is a biography about the work of Cervantes. The book talks about the novels Cervantes has written and it also explains the thought process for the production of Don Quixote. Ledesma explains how Cervantes was imprisoned repeatedly for debts and other money troubles and only came to write Quixote when he had given up hope of making a decent living. Cervantes was also, as a very young man, charged with what seems to have been assault and battery.

“Bloom’s Modern Critical Views: Miguel De Cervantes” is a critical review of novels and works by Cervantes including Don Quixote, Exemplary Novels. Harold Bloom compares the work of Cervantes and Shakespeare. Bloom states that Cervantes inhabits three unique personalities: the knight, Sancho and Cervantes himself in his novel Don Quixote. He describes Don Quixote as a tragedy and a comedy. We chose to put this book in our display case because it does a good job on summarizing the life of Cervantes and the novels he wrote.

In the book “The Interludes of Cervantes” by Griswold Morley, Morley strikes a level of diction in a difficult translation task. He describes how Cervantes’s Entremeses are basically plays of lower class types who display wit. Morley tried “to convey Cervantes’ exact meaning” by striking “a mean between current slang and standard book English”. His work was said to be the product of an academic mind, but it was faithful to the original. Morley’s work offers very accurate notes but no bibliography, because he was a pioneer study.

Bibliography

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/dec/13/classics.miguelcervantes

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/francisco-navarro-ledesma/cervantes-the-man-and-the-genius/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morley_Griswold