Cervantes is certainly one of the most important Spanish writers in history, and it is through his writing that we are given one of the most well known and most beloved characters in literature in general.
Miguel de Cervantes trivia will show that the writer was born in 1547, very near to Madrid.
The history surrounding his younger life is sketchy at best, because his family was poor, and the best records of the time are certainly those surrounding families which had more money.
What is known that can appear on a Miguel de Cervantes quiz is that as a young man he eventually travelled to Italy.
The influence of Italian culture would be clear in his work later in life, and that he enlisted in the military in Naples.
He would lose an arm in battle, and serve well for many years, but on another ill fated journey with the navy he was captured and sold into slavery for five years before his eventual return home.
Cervantes began his career as a playwright, and Miguel De Cervantes trivia will show that he was essentially unsuccessful at his pursuit.
He had also had turns as a tax collector and a purchasing agent, and when writing plays was showing no more success than those pursuits he turned to prose writing instead.
He wouldn't become a rich man when the first part of Don Quixote was published, but it would give him a reputation as an important and successful writer, something he had lacked up until that point.
Cervantes published several other works in his lifetime.
Although only two of his plays survived until the present day, he wrote many more than that in Spain during those years.
In addition to a second part to Don Quixote which was published a few years after the first, he also La Galatea (his first published work), the Novelas Ejemplares, which were short stories, and Los Trabajos.
Although his other works are certainly read, it is Don Quixote which has popularized him among readers, with iconic scenes such as the "Tilting at Windmills" episode entering the collective conscious to the point where now, everyone knows what it means to BE "tilting at windmills" An interesting final point that could be on a Miguel de Cervantes quiz is that he died on the same day as William Shakespeare, prompting UNESCO to later declare the 23rd of April as the International Day of the Book.