Author
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra is documented in Fuller’s letters, books, published essays, reading notebooks, and manuscripts (1826–1846). 2 distinct works are named, most often in The Dial, and the most intensive engagement recorded is “excerpted”.
Additional passages preserved in the Memoirs (1852)
Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this author is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →
“Symmetry of the fair Leonisa. / "Sus partes con el todo, y el todo con sus partes, hacian / una maravillosa y concertada armonía y consonancia … que jamas pudo / la envidia hallar cosa en que ponerle tacha!" / Cervantes— / Amante Liberal.”
This page brings together documented engagements currently identified within the Fuller Reading Worlds catalog.
Selected passages from Fuller’s own writings, in chronological order.
“Symmetry of the fair Leonisa.”
Fuller, Margaret. "Reading Notebook 1825–1827." Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Attributed 'Cervantes— / Amante Liberal.' The passage in Spanish describes the beauty of Leonisa.
“you do not study human nature with the loving eye of a Scott, a Shakspeare, a Cervantes, a Moliere, a Goethe, a Raphael, a Mozart”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. II. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984.
Inferred Fuller names Cervantes as a model of humane characterization alongside Scott, Shakespeare, Molière, Goethe, Raphael, and Mozart, though she specifies no particular work.
“his intrepidity, not inferior to that of Le Sage and Cervantes in facing the dark side of human nature [...] His advocacy of the poets cause is about as effective and well planned as Don Q's tourney with the Windmill.”
Fuller, Margaret. "Notes on Balzac, George Sand, De Vigny, and Béranger." Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Inferred Two references: (1) p1 names 'Cervantes' in the 'dark side of human nature' comparison; (2) p37 alludes to 'Don Q's tourney with the Windmill,' the windmill episode in Don Quixote Part I, ch.
“do you not study human nature with the loving eye of a Scott, a Shakspeare, a Cervantes, a Moliere, a Goethe, a Raphael, a Mozart”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Inferred No work is named. Fuller refers to Cervantes — “do you not study human nature with the loving eye of a Scott, a Shakspeare, a Cervantes, a Moliere, a Goethe” — and the passage does not identify a specific writing.
“Don Quixote and Wilhelm Meister [...] Cervantes has painted the knight, Goethe the culture of the entire man, ? both their own time.”
Fuller, Margaret. Life Without and Life Within; or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems. Edited by Arthur B. Fuller. Boston: Brown, Taggard and Chase, 1860. · p44
“I have admired his skill in giving the minute traits of passion, and his intrepidity, not inferior to that of Le Sage and Cervantes, in facing the dark side of human nature.”
Fuller, Margaret. Life Without and Life Within; or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems. Edited by Arthur B. Fuller. Boston: Brown, Taggard and Chase, 1860. · p159
Inferred Cervantes is explicitly named as a touchstone for confronting "the dark side of human nature." No specific title is cited; the implied referent, given Fuller's consistent engagement with canonical works, is likely Don Quixote (Part I, 1605; Part II, 1615).
“Give us comedy like that of Cervantes and Molière, where the men, with all their oddities and follies, were really men”
Fuller, Margaret. "Wiley & Putnam’s Library . . ." New-York Daily Tribune, 12 May 1845. · 12 May 1845
“This is an union belonging to the highest form of genius; to Shakespeare, Cervantes, Burns; preeminently to Jean Paul himself.”
Fuller, Margaret. "Walt and Vult; Or, The Twins . . ." New-York Daily Tribune, 3 March 1846. · 3 March 1846
Undated
Pieces with no legible date. They are part of the record but cannot be placed on the lifeline.
“Of Cervantes, "Oh give me the strength of manhood, every sentence filtered and racy. Dante iron shod, Cervantes in the fulness of manhood, the thinness of youth I no longer admire.”
Fuller, Margaret. "On Napoleon, Cervantes, and Wilhelm Meister." Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Inferred The unnamed interlocutor praises 'Cervantes' with specific characterization ('every sentence filtered and racy,' 'in the fulness of manhood') — a direct critical engagement. The unnamed interlocutor (probably Emerson, given the tone and setting of these conversation notes in Fuller's journal circle) makes an extended praise of Cervantes: 'every sentence filtered and racy' — meaning each sentence is refined and full of vital flavor — and pairs him with Dante in a contrast between maturity ('fulness of manhood') and youth.
“Wordsworth scrutinizes man and nature with the exact and searching eye of a Cervantes, a Fielding, or a Richter”
Fuller, Margaret. Papers on Literature and Art. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1846.
Inferred No work is named. Fuller refers to Cervantes — “Wordsworth scrutinizes man and nature with the exact and searching eye of a Cervantes, a Fielding, or a Richter” — and the passage does not identify a specific writing.
“she singled out the works of Shakespeare, Cervantes, and Moliere”
Howe, Julia Ward. Margaret Fuller (Marchesa Ossoli). Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1883.
Inferred Same vague, undated 'singled out the works of' generalization as 3353, no specific episode.
Passages surviving only in the posthumous Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, compiled by Emerson, Channing, and Clarke.
“In Cervantes, I found far less productive talent indeed, a far less powerful genius — but the same wide wisdom...”
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, eds. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 2 vols. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1852.
Inferred Margaret Fuller engages with Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote, a text she identified in childhood as one of the "three great authors" she met. She alludes to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's influential interpretation of the work, specifically his equation of Don Quixote with "pure Reason" and Sancho Panza with "the Understanding."
Margaret Fuller engages with Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote, a text she identified in childhood as one of the "three great authors" she met.
Undated
Pieces with no legible date. They are part of the record but cannot be placed on the lifeline.
“as AEsop, Cervantes, Franklin, Scott, they gain in universality”
Inferred No work is named. Fuller refers to Cervantes — “as AEsop, Cervantes, Franklin, Scott, they gain in universality” — and the passage does not identify a specific writing.
“In Cervantes, I found far less productive talent indeed...he took things as they came before him, and saw their actual relations”
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, eds. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1852.
“Shakespeare, Cervantes, and Moliere were the friends of her childhood”
Cheney, Ednah Dow. Reminiscences of Ednah Dow Cheney. Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1902.
Inferred No work is named. Fuller refers to Cervantes — “Shakespeare, Cervantes, and Moliere were the friends of her childhood” — and the passage does not identify a specific writing.