"Cervantes's Theory of the Novel," by E.C. Riley.
Professor Riley's famous study went out-of-print in 1968. We reprinted it in 1992, with some new author's corrections, for a new generation of Cervantists, for college libraries that haven't been able to order it, and for classroom use.
The main text of the book is divided into six sections:
I. Introductory
1. Cervantes and the Literary Theory of his Time
2. Art and Rules
3. The Author-Critic
4. Literature and Life in Don Quixote
II. First Principles
1. From the Epic to the Novel
2. Art and Nature, Imitation and Invention
3. The Imitation of Models
4. The Making of a Writer—Natura, stadium, exercitatio
5. Erudition
III. Author and Reader
1. The Functions of the Novel—Pleasure and Profit
2. The Functions of the Novel—Admiratio
3. Morality
4. Author and Public
IV. The Form of the Work
1. Variety and Unity
2. Style and Decorum
3. Diction
4. Decoration and Hyperbole
V. The Truth of the Matter
1. History and Fiction
2. Verisimilitude and the Marvellous
VI. Heroes, Authors, and Rivals in Don Quixote
1. The Heroes Commemorated
2. The Fictitious-Authorship Device
3. Avellaneda's Quixote
Documentación cervantina «Tom Lathrop», Nº 13
ISBN 978-0-936388-56-4 (PB) $20