Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda

Who is Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda?

Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda is pseudonym of a man who wrote a sequel to Cervantes’ Don Quixote. The identity of Fernández de Avellaneda has been the subject of many theories, but there is no consensus on who he was. One theory holds that Avellaneda’s work was a collaboration by friends of Lope de Vega. Another theory is that it was by Gerónimo de Passamonte, the real-life inspiration for the character Ginés de Pasamonte of Part I.

Critical opinion has generally held Avellaneda’s work in low regard, and Cervantes himself is highly critical of it in his own Part 2. However, it is possible that Cervantes would never have completed his own continuation were it not for the stimulus Avellaneda provided. Throughout Part 2 of Cervantes' book Don Quixote meets characters who know of him from their reading of his Part 1, but in Chapter 59 Don Quixote first learns of Avellaneda’s Part 2, and is outraged since it portrays him as being no longer in love with Dulcinea del Toboso. As a result of this Don Quixote decides not to go to Zaragoza to take part in the jousts, as he had planned, because such an incident features in that book.