Lunatics, Lovers and Poets: Twelve Stories After Cervantes and Shakespeare review – a triumph of collaboration

Inspired by Shakespeare and Cervantes, 12 novelists and translators have produced some fine and unusual short stories

On April 23 1616 the world lost two literary titans: William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes. The coincidence is so remarkable that only a curmudgeon would point out that it’s wrong on two counts. In 1616 England was still using the Julian calendar while Spain had moved to the Gregorian system. Recent research suggests that Cervantes died on 22 April and was buried the next day. So perhaps there were 10 days between the two deaths: it’s still close enough to merit a joint party.

While both men have inspired legions of writers – all subsequent writers, you could say – what influence Shakespeare and Cervantes may have had on one another is hard to gauge. Some academics want to believe they met in Spain. A safer bet is that Shakespeare read Don Quixote. His friends included one of Cervantes’ translators and he collaborated on the play Cardenio – later lost – based on an episode from Quixote.

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