Before he was a writer, Miguel de Cervantes was a soldier. Enlisting in the Spanish infantry in 1570, he fought at the battle of Lepanto, was seized at sea and held captive by Algerian corsairs, and returned to Spain with a deep knowledge of military life. He understood the costs of heroism, the fragility of fame, and the power of the military culture of brotherhood.

In Heroic Forms, Stephen Rupp connects Cervantes’s complex and inventive approach to literary genre and his many representations of early modern warfare. Examining Cervantes’s plays and poetry as well as his prose, Rupp demonstrates how Cervantes’s works express his perceptions of military life and how Cervantes interpreted the experience of war through the genres of the era: epic, tragedy, pastoral, romance, and picaresque fiction.

Stephen Rupp is an associate professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Toronto.

Stephen Rupp's profile page

‘A superb contribution to early modern Spanish studies… Rupp’s approach offers rich, thought-provoking, unique perspectives… Highly recommended.’

Choice vol 52:08:2015

‘Rupp’s book is a very solid, innovative, and intriguing study of Cervantes’s contributions to advances in genre development through the lens of a specific and very relevant topic that proves quite elucidating.’

Renaissance Quarterly vol 69:01:2016

‘Rupp’s book is original, thought provoking, and will make a significant contribution to the criticism of Cervantes’s literature on the topic of war and heroism.’

Hispania vol 99:02:2016

"This book contributes to the field by providing a unique cross-genre approach to Cervantes’ representation of warfare and heroism. Rupp’s analysis accurately portrays the conflictive readings of Cervantes’ characters, as well as his uneasy relationship with conventional literary form."

<em>Bulletin of Spanish Studies</em>