The Exemplary Novels of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

MP3 Audio CD. The Exemplary Novels is a collection of a dozen novellas written by Cervantes during the two decades between 1590 and 1612 and first published in 1613.

The stories in the collection follow the dual model of the Don Quixote stories: some of the novellas are set in reality, while others are idealistic and feature lots of imaginary components. Idealized stories usually deal with love and revolve around improbable characters who have a very low opinion about reality as such. The realistic pieces revolve around more vivid and, evidently, more realistic characters and events that can have taken place in the times of Cervantes. However, the two types of stories are not very strictly delimited ? idealistic stories are not entirely cut off from reality and realistic stories are not completely down to earth either.

Cervantes is mostly known for his Don Quixote, that is the book from his oeuvre that most have read or have heard about. Those who loved the extraordinary, larger-than-life characters in his magnum opus will certainly love these stories as well ? they come from the pen of the same narrative genius and they are just as entertaining, inspiring and thought-provoking as the stories about the adventures of the Ingenious Gentleman.

The stories can be enjoyed on many levels ? you will find what you are looking for if you are looking for some well-written stories from Cervantes because you liked his grand novel and you will certainly find the novellas useful and great fun to read if you are looking for more information about what day to day life was like at the end of the 16th and the first decade of the 17th century. You may find some of the stories revolve around the same theme, but even so, the way the topics are approached is always fresh and new.