In 1605, Cervantes was in Valladolid when the immediate success of the first part of his Don Quixote, published in Madrid, signalled his return to the literary world. In 1597, discrepancies in his accounts for three years previous landed him in the Crown Jail of Seville. He worked as a purchasing agent for the Spanish Armada and later as a tax collector for the government. In 1585, Cervantes published La Galatea, a pastoral novel.

After five years of captivity, he was released on payment of a ransom by his parents and the Trinitarians, a Catholic religious order, and he returned to his family in Madrid. Then he enlisted as a soldier in a Spanish Navy infantry regiment and continued his military life until 1575, when he was captured by Barbary pirates. He has also been dubbed El príncipe de los ingenios ('The Prince of Wits').In 1569, in forced exile from Castile, Cervantes moved to Rome, where he worked as chamber assistant of a cardinal. Cervantes' influence on the Spanish language has been so great that the language is often called la lengua de Cervantes ('the language of Cervantes'). His novel Don Quixote has been translated into over 140 languages and dialects it is, after the Bible, the most-translated book in the world.Don Quixote, a classic of Western literature, is sometimes considered both the first modern novel and the best work of fiction ever written. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ( US: Spanish: 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 NS) was a Spanish writer who is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelists.

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