Esta biograf#65533;a aspira a despojar a Cervantes de los cuatrocientos a#65533;os de historia que le han ca#65533;do encima para acercarnos a su dimensi#65533;n humana y sentimental, a su condici#65533;n de firme hombre de armas e inagotable hombre de letras, al escritor #65533;nico y a su vitalidad arrebatada, a su defensa de la mujer y a su af#65533;n por entender la existencia como nadie la hab#65533;a entendido hasta entonces: en la encrucijada moderna de la iron#65533;a. Ni desvalido ni predestinado, Cervantes logr#65533; escaper de su tiempo para plantarse en el centro del nuestro porque solo los cl#65533;sicos viven como aut#65533;nticos modernos. Pero ninguno lo es tanto como Cervantes en el Quijote, cuando ya la edad le encorva la espalda, sigue entera la alegr#65533;a y nada le amarga el #65533;nimo. La iron#65533;a y el ideal se dan la mano por primera vez en una novela imposible en su tiempo y tan genial hoy como entonces. Algunas de las razones para ese sortilegio est#65533;n en esta biograf#65533;a escrita con impulso narrativo, a pie de calle, fidedigna y renovadora. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION This biography hopes to strip Cervantes of the four hundred years of history that have fallen on top of him in order to bring us closer to his human, emotional dimension, to his condition as a determined soldier and tireless man of letters, to the unique writer and his impulsive vitality, to his defense of women and his eagerness to understand our existence as nobody had yet understood it: in the modern dilemma of irony. Neither helpless nor predestined, Cervantes managed to escape from his time to plant himself firmly in ours because only true classics can live on like modern pieces. But none so much as Cervantes in Don Quixote, when age was already curving his spine, his joy was unfazed, and nothing can dampen his spirit. Irony and the ideal are joined for the first time in a novel that was impossible at its time and is as brilliant today as it was back then. Some of the reasons for this spell are in this authoritative, refreshing biography, written with great narrative momentum.