<P> Regarded by many as one of the finest works in any language, El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes was the first novel published in Europe; it gave Cervantes a stature in the Spanish - speaking world comparable to his contemporary William Shakespeare in English . The novel, like Spain itself, was caught between the Middle Ages and the modern world . A veteran of the Battle of Lepanto (1571), Cervantes had fallen on hard times in the late 1590s and was imprisoned for debt in 1597, and some believe that during these years he began work on his best - remembered novel . The first part of the novel was published in 1605; the second in 1615, a year before the author's death . Don Quixote resembled both the medieval, chivalric romances of an earlier time and the novels of the early modern world . It parodied classical morality and chivalry, found comedy in knighthood, and criticized social structures and the perceived madness of Spain's rigid society . The work has endured to the present day as a landmark in world literary history, and it was an immediate international hit in its own time, interpreted variously as a satirical comedy, social commentary and forbearer of self - referential literature . </P> <P> A contemporary of Cervantes, Lope de Vega consolidated the essential genres and structures which would characterize the Spanish commercial drama, also known as the "Comedia", throughout the 17th century . While Lope de Vega wrote prose and poetry as well, he is best remembered for his plays, particularly those grounded in Spanish history . Like Cervantes, Lope de Vega served with the Spanish army and was fascinated with the Spanish nobility . In the hundreds of plays he wrote, with settings ranging from the Biblical times to legendary Spanish history to classical mythology to his own time, Lope de Vega frequently took a comical approach just as Cervantes did, taking a conventional moral play and dressing it up in good humor and cynicism . His stated goal was to entertain the public, much as Cervantes's was . In bringing morality, comedy, drama, and popular wit together, Lope de Vega is often compared to his English contemporary Shakespeare . Some have argued that as a social critic, Lope de Vega attacked, like Cervantes, many of the ancient institutions of his country - aristocracy, chivalry, and rigid morality, among others . Lope de Vega and Cervantes represented an alternative artistic perspective to the religious asceticism of Francisco Zurbarán . Lope de Vega's "cloak - and - sword" plays, which mingled intrigue, romance, and comedy together were carried on by his literary successor, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, in the later seventeenth century . Other well - known playwrights of the period include: Tirso de Molina; Agustín Moreto; Juan Pérez de Montalbán; Juan Ruiz de Alarcón; Guillén de Castro and Antonio Mira de Amescua . </P> <P> This period also produced some of the most important Spanish works of poetry . The introduction and influence of Italian Renaissance verse is apparent perhaps most vividly in the works of Garcilaso de la Vega and illustrate a profound influence on later poets . Mystical literature in Spanish reached its summit with the works of San Juan de la Cruz and Teresa of Ávila . Baroque poetry was dominated by the contrasting styles of Francisco de Quevedo and Luis de Góngora; both had a lasting influence on subsequent writers, and even on the Spanish language itself . Lope de Vega was a gifted poet of his own, and there were a vast quantity of remarkable poets at that time, though less known: Francisco de Rioja, Bartolomé Leonardo de Argensola, Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola, Bernardino de Rebolledo, Rodrigo Caro, Andrés Rey de Artieda, etc . </P> <P> The picaresque genre flourished in this era, describing the life of pícaros, living by their wits in a decadent society . Distinguished examples are El buscón, by Francisco de Quevedo, Guzmán de Alfarache by Mateo Alemán, Estebanillo González and Lazarillo de Tormes (1554), which created the genre . </P>

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