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The first biography to be aimed at the general reader as
much as at students and historians, No Ordinary Man
is a fascinating study of the life and work of Miguel de
Cervantes (1547-1616), the writer known as the ‘Spanish
Shakespeare’
and author of the timeless classic Don Quixote.
A renaissance man in all senses of the term, Cervantes was,
in his time, an adventurer, spy, soldier, hostage and creator
of the first European novel. This biography is based
on
the latest original research and incorporates previously
unpublished material on Cervantes’ long period of captivity
in Algiers, his involvement in piracy in the Mediterranean,
espionage and the Spanish Armada and his work for the Spanish
government. Containing much information never before available
in English,
No Ordinary Man makes an important contribution to
the understanding of this unique literary and historical
figure.
‘McCrory’s new biography
has many advantages that make it worthy of our attention
. . . Readers will learn much about the
Spain of Phillip II and III . . . No Ordinary Man reveals
many details we had not considered.’ - Daniel Eisenberg,
Chairman, Cervantes Society of North America
‘Cervantes created a character who in being entirely
of a time and a culture transcends both. It was and remains
a remarkable achievement. So is McCrory’s.’
- Sunday Herald
‘McCrory has painstakingly assembled unadorned facts
and sifted the scholarship on the context of his subject’s
life . . . efficiently, painlessly and usefully . . . he
is mercifully free of literary theory and is more interested
in constructing an honest “life and times” rather
than making inferences about the man from his work.’
-
Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Literary Review
‘McCrory wisely stays aloof from wild speculations and
sticks faithfully to the facts, but the results are no less
fascinating . . . the book sheds plenty of new light on one
of the most fertile and prodigious minds of the Renaissance.’
- Fernando Cervantes, Tablet
DONALD McCRORY is former Principal Lecturer and Head of Hispanic
Studies at the American International University in London.
He has contributed to many academic journals and published
six volumes of poetry. His translation and in-depth study
of Cervantes’ ‘The Captive’s Tale’, one
of the stories in Don Quixote, Part One, was published
in 1994. |
