"Egginton shines in his literary analysis, teasing out Cervantes''s genius in accessible prose and showing how Don Quixote paved the way for modern fiction by exploring its characters'' inner lives . An entertaining and thought-provoking reading of Cervantes''s masterpiece." -- Publishers Weekly "A celebration of a beloved novel and its innovative author . Egginton''s well-informed history of 16th-century Spanish life, politics, and culture makes for an engrossing read." -- Kirkus Reviews "William Egginton has written an engaging and enlightening book on the pivotal role of Miguel de Cervantes in the development of western literature. He provides a literary, biographical, and historical overview of Cervantes''s life and work in well-written prose mercifully free of jargon, and amply justifies the truth of his wonderfully provocative title. I''m happy to recommend The Man Who Invented Fiction ." --Edith Grossman, renowned translator of, among other Spanish language masterpieces, DON QUIXOTE "Egginton''s study of Cervantes is a poignant account of Don Quixote , which with Montaigne''s Essays is the only work contemporary with Shakespeare able to compete with his transcendent power.
We know nothing that truly matters about Shakespeare, whose inwardness is concealed in the cosmos of his dramas. But with Cervantes and Montaigne we know nearly everything since each became his own subject. Four centuries after Cervantes and Shakespeare died, The Man Who Invented Fiction is a worthy memorial to the eternal achievement that Cervantes wrought out of his own suffering and hard-won wisdom." --Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of Humanities, Yale University, and author of THE WESTERN CANON "As this book shows us, Cervantes doesn''t simply predate our idea of fiction; he conditions it, gives it form, makes it possible. In this sense, the present book can be understood as a genealogy of the literary imagination and its suffering father . [ The Man Who Invented Fiction ] invites us on a journey through the misfortune-packed life of the author, showing how his difficulties, failures, and disappointments ended up crystallizing in the miracle of a book that recapitulates and redeems them at the same time . Egginton''s entertaining, intelligent, solidly documented study . invites us to rediscover this summit of literature, preparing us to enjoy it between the lines and reminding us how the old man Cervantes continues to await us, an ironic smile on his lips, in that strange place called the future.
" --Andrés Neuman, novelist, author of TRAVELER OF THE CENTURY, winner of the Alfaguara Prize "Did Cervantes truly invent fiction? William Egginton argues persuasively that the publication of Don Quixote in 1605 has transformed the way people have read, written, and thought ever since--after all, the Knight of the Mournful Countenance has beguiled admirers as diverse as Descartes, Hume, Marx, Borges, and Graham Greene. Egginton presents Cervantes as an author of rare compassion, a man whose tempestuous, difficult life was somehow essential to forging his transcendent creation, the inseparable duo of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, whose bond of friendship upends the cruel conventions of sixteenth-century picaresque novels in order to rejoice in the power of individual conviction. Like Don Quixote , The Man Who Invented Fiction is an inspirational adventure story." --Ingrid D. Rowland, Professor of Architecture, University of Notre Dame, and author of GIORDANO BRUNO: PHILOSOPHER/HERETIC " The Man Who Invented Fiction weaves a compelling tapestry of adventures in reading. Told with great panache, William Egginton''s presentation combines a unique understanding of Cervantes''s life, art, times, and the cultural debates that shaped his revolutionary fiction. It is essential reading." --Marina S.
Brownlee, Robert Schirmer Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature at Princeton University, and author of THE POETICS OF LITERARY THEORY IN LOPE AND CERVANTES " The Man who Invented Fiction is a wonderful reflection on the impact of life on literature and literature on life, a poetic and evocative meditation that succeeds at offering a detailed and nuanced look at the Spain of Cervantes. Ambitious yet highly accessible, Egginton''s book will become a great companion for scholars and students, as well as for all those simply interested in a novel that remains as relevant as ever." --Enrique García Santo-Tomás, Frank P. Casa Collegiate Professor of Spanish, The University of Michigan, Spanish poet, essayist, and literary critic and author of many studies on Spanish literature "Egginton''s latest book is a compelling reminder that how we inhabit the world is often a factor of the skills and practices specific to a culture and age. Elegantly woven into his riveting account of Miguel de Cervantes'' astounding life and adventures is a profound analysis and redefinition of one of the modern world''s most important modes of organizing experience: fiction. After reading Egginton''s book it will be hard to read a novel or go to the cinema without critically reflecting on the central place fiction occupies in our lives today." --Gianni Vattimo, renowned Italian philosopher, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Turin, and author of ART''S CLAIM TO TRUTH " The Man Who Invented Fiction is a fascinating, one-of-a-kind book. While Cervantes and his time come alive like never before in this rich, perceptive, and finely layered intellectual history, readers will be even more appreciative for the opportunity to re-imagine their own world through Cervantine eyes.
Egginton''s new book is a deeply insightful and riveting read, a model for the type of scholarship that we associate with the public humanities." --David R. Castillo, Professor Romance Languages & Literatures, University at Buffalo, and author of BAROQUE HORRORS "Those who believe classics such as Don Quixote , Hamlet , or In Search of Lost Time don''t need new critical studies make a fundamental error. Classics, as hermeneutic philosophy always points out, are classics not because of their origins, but because of their effects, that is, because of the new interpretations they constantly generate. But William Egginton''s book is not simply a new interpretation of Miguel de Cervantes''s fundamental text; it is also a new interpretation of his life and epoch as central to understanding how he invented what we now call fiction. This invention, which is at the center of Egginton''s outstanding intellectual biography, is vital for everyone who still believes in the power of the arts in the 21st century." --Santiago Zabala, ICREA Research Professor of Philosophy at Pompeu Fabra University, and author of THE REMAINS OF BEING " The Man Who Invented Fiction shows what literary criticism has become able to do for non-professional and for academic readers alike, after an era of intense theory debates. It is an invitation to deeply immerse oneself into the early seventeenth century world of a veteran from the Spanish crown''s imperial wars; and as this veteran is Miguel de Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote , the reader re-emerges from that past made present with a graspable but fully developed philosophy of what it is all about to engage in fiction under the conditions of Modernity.
" --Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Albert Guérard Professor of Literature, Stanford University "William Egginton offers a brilliant synthesis of the life and work of Miguel de Cervantes as he paints the engaging story of the birth of modern fiction and, in turn, of modern thought. With a nuanced grasp and engaging presentation of theory and philosophy, Egginton clearly details how and why Cervantes was a game-changer. His analysis sheds light on the layered architecture of Cervantes'' narrative style and on the author''s masterful creation of illusions inside a fictional text as a way to reveal the vital conventions of illusory roles outside it. Egginton deftly teases out the effect this narrative depth has on a reader outside a story yet coaxed into it to share in a dualist, real and fictional perspective, and thus to explore multiple subjective truths. History, politics, philosophy, and literature are beautifully combined in this ingenious exploration of Cervantes'' historical actuality, technical prowess, and artistic literary invention, as Egginton brings the author''s full story up to date and convincingly argues for its splendid vitality." --Susan Byrne, Associate Professor of Spanish, Yale University, and author of LAW AND HISTORY IN CERVANTES''S DON QUIXOTE.