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Quit Your Bellyaching

You know that thing the Universe does when you’ve been complaining about something, and it says, “Ha! That’s nothing!” then shows you an example of how it could be SO MUCH WORSE?

Well, the Universe did that when I was researching how exactly Don Quixote had been published (I thought the novel was serialized, and in a way it was, as it was published in two parts, but not like I thought, as in weekly increments). I’m reading Wikipedia (is there anywhere else to start your research?) and I came across this:

The novel was an immediate success. The majority of the 400 copies of the first edition were sent to the New World, with the publisher hoping to get a better price in the Americas. Although most of them disappeared in a shipwreck near La Havana, approximately 70 copies reached Lima, from where they were sent to Cuzco in the heart of the defunct Inca Empire.

No sooner was it in the hands of the public than preparations were made to issue derivative (pirated) editions.

Can you believe it? Cervantes waits years. He finally gets a book deal, but the publisher wants to make more money and decides to launch it way the hell across the water. How much worse can it get? Don’t ask. The ship carrying the books wrecks, Cervantes’ babies are lost. But, lo—success! The indomitable story cannot be sunk…but it can be pirated.

Thankfully, Cervantes had the last laugh. Don Quixote became the most translated book in the world, after the Bible. It has sold 500 million copies world-wide.

There may be hope for my work yet.

TO TOP IT OFF, THIS ICONIC PHOTO OF CERVANTES MIGHT NOT BE HIM, JUST SOME DUDE WHO LIKES BIG COLLARS

Cervantes, Don Quixote, Most translated book in the world, Movie Ideas

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