The Solitary Journey

This book, the first in-depth study of Cervantes' longest poem, proposes a new reading of this previously neglected work by situating it in the socio-literary context of its day. The point of departure is the exploration of the poem's relationship to its literary models. The Voyage, is a kaleidoscopic composite of dream-vision, ideal journey, literary testament, adoxography, and mock epic. The author demonstrates how Cervantes achieved unity in the poem through the adherence to the canons of the satiric mode. The process of decoding the poem's veiled, emblematic language reveals to the twentieth-century reader that the Voyage is one of the finest examples of Cervantine wit.