Miguel de Cervantes' Prose

Miguel de Cervantes' prose explores what happens when inherited stories meet the unsettled circumstances of everyday life. In Don Quixote, the companionship of the aspiring knight and Sancho Panza allows idealism, practical judgment, affection, and misunderstanding to develop together. The Exemplary Novels give shorter forms to encounters involving choice, reputation, and unexpected changes of fortune. Other narratives draw on pastoral and adventure traditions. Cervantes repeatedly changes the distance between a story and its telling, making the judgment of speakers and listeners part of the action.