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Don Quixote
, the full title being ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and is often said to be the first modern novel. The novel has been labelled by many well-known authors as the "best novel of all time" and the "best and most central work in world literature". ''Don Quixote'' is also one of the List of literary works by number of translations, most-translated books in the world and one of the List of best-selling books, best-selling novels of all time. The plot revolves around the adventures of a member of the lowest nobility, an Hidalgo (nobility), hidalgo from La Mancha named Alonso Quijano, who reads so many chivalric romances that he loses his mind and decides to become a knight-errant () to revive chivalry and serve his nation, under the name . He recruits as his squire a simple farm labourer, Sancho Panza, wh ...
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Miguel De Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ( ; ; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was a Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelists. He is best known for his novel ''Don Quixote'', a work considered as the first modern novel. The novel has been labelled by many well-known authors as the "best book of all time" and the "best and most central work in world literature". Much of his life was spent in relative poverty and obscurity, which led to many of his early works being lost. Despite this, his influence and literary contribution are reflected by the fact that Spanish is often referred to as "the language of Cervantes". In 1569, Cervantes was forced to leave Spain and move to Rome, where he worked in the household of a Cardinal (Catholic Church), cardinal. In 1570, he enlisted in a Spanish Marine Infantry, Spanish Navy infantry regiment, and was badly wounded at th ...
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Seamus Heaney
Seamus Justin Heaney (13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish Irish poetry, poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his best-known works is ''Death of a Naturalist'' (1966), his first major published volume. American poet Robert Lowell described him as "the most important Irish poet since W. B. Yeats, Yeats", and many others, including the academic John Sutherland (author), John Sutherland, have said that he was "the greatest poet of our age". Robert Pinsky has stated that "with his wonderful gift of eye and ear Heaney has the gift of the story-teller." Upon his death in 2013, ''The Independent'' described him as "probably the best-known poet in the world". Heaney was born in the townland of Tamniaran between Castledawson and Toomebridge, Northern Ireland. His family moved to nearby Bellaghy when he was a boy. He became a lecturer at St. Joseph's College in Belfast in the early 1960s, after attending Queen's University B ...
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Don (honorific)
The terms Don (in Spanish language, Spanish and Italian language, Italian), Dom (in Portuguese language, Portuguese), and Domn (in Romanian language, Romanian), are honorific prefixes derived from the Latin language, Latin ''Dominus'', meaning "lord" or "owner". The honorific is commonly used in Spain, Portugal, and Italy, as well as in the Spanish-speaking world and Portuguese-speaking world, as well as some other places formerly colonized by Spain or Portugal. The feminine equivalents are (), (), (Romanian) and (). The term is derived from the Latin : a master of a household, a title with background from the Roman Republic in classical antiquity. With the abbreviated form having emerged as such in the Middle Ages, traditionally it is reserved for Catholic clergy and nobles, in addition to certain educational authorities and persons of high distinction. Spanish-speaking world In Spanish, although originally a title reserved for royalty, select nobles, and church hierarch ...
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Chivalry
Chivalry, or the chivalric language, is an informal and varying code of conduct that developed in Europe between 1170 and 1220. It is associated with the medieval Christianity, Christian institution of knighthood, with knights being members of various chivalric orders, and with knights' and gentlemen's behaviours which were governed by chivalrous social codes. The ideals of chivalry were popularized in medieval literature, particularly the literary cycles known as the Matter of France, relating to the legendary companions of Charlemagne and his men-at-arms, the paladins, and the Matter of Britain, informed by Geoffrey of Monmouth's , written in the 1130s, which popularized the legend of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table. The code of chivalry that developed in medieval Europe had its roots in earlier centuries. It arose in the Carolingian Empire from the idealisation of the cavalryman—involving military bravery, individual training, and service to others—especia ...
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Knight-errant
A knight-errant (or knight errant) is a figure of medieval chivalric romance literature. The adjective '' errant'' (meaning "wandering, roving") indicates how the knight-errant would wander the land in search of adventures to prove his chivalric virtues, either in knightly duels ('' pas d'armes'') or in some other pursuit of courtly love. Description The knight-errant is a character who has broken away from the world of his origin, in order to go off on his own to right wrongs or to test and assert his own chivalric ideals. In medieval Europe, knight-errantry existed in literature, though fictional works from this time often were presented as non-fiction. The template of the knight-errant were the heroes of the Round Table of the Arthurian cycle such as Gawain, Lancelot, and Percival. The quest ''par excellence'' in pursuit of which these knights wandered the lands is that of the Holy Grail, such as in ''Perceval, the Story of the Grail'' written by Chrétien de Troyes in the ...
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Chivalric Romance
As a literary genre, the chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the noble courts of high medieval and early modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a chivalric knight-errant portrayed as having heroic qualities, who goes on a quest. It developed further from the epics as time went on; in particular, "the emphasis on love and courtly manners distinguishes it from the ''chanson de geste'' and other kinds of epic, in which masculine military heroism predominates." Popular literature also drew on themes of romance, but with ironic, satiric, or burlesque intent. Romances reworked legends, fairy tales, and history to suit the readers' and hearers' tastes, but by they were out of fashion, and Miguel de Cervantes famously burlesqued them in his novel ''Don Quixote''. Still, the modern image of "medieval" is more influenced by the romance than by any other medieval genre, and the word ''medie ...
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Alonso Quijano
Alonso Quijano (; spelled Quixano in English and in the Spanish of Cervantes' day, ), more commonly known by his pseudonym Don Quixote, is a fictional character and the protagonist of the novel '' Don Quixote de la Mancha'' by Miguel de Cervantes. At the outset of the work (Chapter 1 of Part I) we are informed that there is confusion about what his name is. Some (imaginary) authors, the text says, disagree about whether his name was Quijada ("jaw") or Quesada, although by reasoning ("conjeturas verosímiles") one could arrive at the name Quijana. At this point, Quijano is not even mentioned as a possibility, nor is Alonso, hinting the reader into one of the most notable yet purposefully obfuscated examples of an unreliable narrator. In Chapter 49 of Part I he tells us that he was a direct descendant of Gutierre Quijada. His "real" name of Alonso Quijano is only revealed in the last chapter of Part II, and with the stated purpose of demonstrating the falseness of the spurious Part ...
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La Mancha
La Mancha () is a natural region, natural and historical region in the provinces of Spain, Spanish provinces of province of Albacete, Albacete, province of Cuenca, Cuenca, province of Ciudad Real, Ciudad Real and province of Toledo, Toledo. It is a fertile plateau (610 m or 2000 ft) that stretches from the mountains of Toledo, Spain, Toledo to the western spurs of the Cuenca, Spain, Cuenca hills, bordered to the south by the Sierra Morena and to the north by the Alcarria. The La Mancha historical comarca constitutes the southern portion of Castilla-La Mancha autonomous community and makes up most of the present-day administrative region. Etymology The name ''La Mancha'' is probably derived from the Arabic word المنشأ ''al-mansha'', meaning "land without water". The name of the city of Almansa in Province of Albacete, Albacete shares that origin. The name describes the region's dryland farming soils. Another etymology ascribes the origin of ''La Mancha'' to المان ...
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Hidalgo (nobility)
A (; ) or a (, ) is a member of the Spanish or Portuguese nobility; the feminine forms of the terms are , in Spanish, and , in Portuguese and Galician. Legally, a is a nobleman by blood who can pass his noble condition to his children, as opposed to someone who acquired his nobility by royal grace. In practice, enjoyed important privileges, such as being exempt from paying taxes, having the right to bear arms, having a coat of arms, having a separate legal and court system whereby they could only be judged by their peers, not being subject to the death sentence unless it was authorized by the king, etc. Contrary to popular belief, hidalguía (i.e. the condition of being a hidalgo) is not a nobility rank, but rather a type of nobility. Not all hidalgos lacked nobility titles, and not all members of the titled nobility were hidalgos. For example, the Kings of Spain are hidalgos, because their nobility was acquired by blood from time immemorial. In modern times, hidalgos ...
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List Of Best-selling Books
This page provides lists of best-selling books and book series to date and in any language. ''"Best-selling"'' refers to the estimated number of copies sold of each book, rather than the number of books printed or currently owned. Comic book, Comics and textbooks are not included in this list. The books are listed according to the highest sales estimate as reported in reliable, independent sources. According to ''Guinness World Records'', as of 1995, the Bible was the best-selling book of all time, with an estimated 5billion copies sold and distributed. Sales estimates for other printed religious texts include at least copies for the Qur'an and 200 million copies for the Book of Mormon. Also, a single publisher has produced more than 162.1 million copies of the Bhagavad Gita. The total number could be much higher considering the widespread distribution and publications by ISKCON. The ISKCON has distributed about 503.39 million Bhagavad Gita since 1965. Among non-religious texts, ...
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Harvard Gazette
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Its influence, wealth, and rankings have made it one of the most prestigious universities in the world. Harvard was founded and authorized by the Massachusetts General Court, the governing legislature of colonial-era Massachusetts Bay Colony. While never formally affiliated with any denomination, Harvard trained Congregational clergy until its curriculum and student body were gradually secularized in the 18th century. By the 19th century, Harvard emerged as the most prominent academic and cultural institution among the Boston elite. Following the American Civil War, under Harvard president Charles William Eliot's long tenure from 1869 to 1909, Harvard developed multiple professional schools, which transforme ...
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List Of Literary Works By Number Of Translations
This is a list of the most translated literary works (including novels, plays, series, collections of poems or short stories, and essays and other forms of literary non-fiction) sorted by the number of languages into which they have been translated. Only translations published by established, independent publishers are taken into account, not people self-publishing translations (real or automatic) via publish-on-demand or on websites, to avoid artificially inflated counts. See also * List of most translated individual authors *List of best-selling books This page provides lists of best-selling books and book series to date and in any language. ''"Best-selling"'' refers to the estimated number of copies sold of each book, rather than the number of books printed or currently owned. Comic book, Com ... * Index Translationum References External linksTranslated works' and authors' database at the UNESCO website
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