4 h 59 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What good is honor when your master wears fine clothes and sends you begging for bread?
The Picaresque Novel gathers three sharp Spanish tales: the anonymous Lazarillo de Tormes, Miguel de Cervantes’s Rinconete and Cortadillo, and Francisco de Quevedo’s El Buscón. Their poor, hungry rogues live by their wits among mean masters, false piety and empty pride. Survival comes first; a name worth having, or a place higher in society, remains harder to secure.
Lázaro serves a blind beggar and learns hard lessons through blows and tricks. Pedro del Rincón and Diego Cortado head for Seville, where Monipodio runs a brotherhood of thieves with rules and prayers. Pablos, a barber’s son from Segovia, longs to become a gentleman. Their short, darkly funny stories expose Spanish society while showing how the picaresque novel takes shape.
What you’ll discover
- Hunger behind fine clothes Meet a penniless squire whose precious honor leaves his servant begging for their bread.
- A boy learns wariness Follow Lázaro through harsh service, where a sharp beggar teaches him through tricks and blows.
- Thieves with rules and prayers Enter Monipodio’s Seville underworld, where crime has the rules and prayers of a brotherhood.
- The longing to rise Watch Pablos chase a gentleman’s rank while hunger and his family’s reputation shape his story.
- The roots of rogue fiction Discover how three tales of low-born tricksters trace the beginnings and growth of the picaresque.
Who will love it
For readers who love dark comedy, sharp social satire and fast, short stories, and anyone curious about the roots of the modern novel.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Lázaro learns his first hard lessons
- Hunger and honor shape a boy
- A life of masters and a letter
- Two young thieves travel to Seville
- Pablos of Segovia chases a higher place
- What the picaresque really says
Who’s who
- LázaroThe poor boy from the river Tormes who tells his life story and learns to survive through many masters.
- The blind manLázaro's first master, a sharp beggar who teaches the boy to be wary through blows and tricks.
- The squire of ToledoA penniless gentleman who clings to his honor and his fine clothes while his servant begs for their bread.
- CortadilloDiego Cortado, a young pickpocket and Rinconete's quick companion on the road to Seville.
- MonipodioThe head of a brotherhood of Seville thieves, who runs crime like a guild with rules and prayers.
- PablosThe barber's son from Segovia who tells his own story and longs to rise to the rank of a gentleman.
- Dómine CabraA miserly teacher whose school starves its pupils, and whose house Pablos must endure.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 4 h 59 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 8 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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La novela picaresca
by Anónimo; Miguel de Cervantes; Francisco de Quevedo; Federico Ruiz Morcuende (editor)
A hungry boy serves cruel masters, two thieves enter Seville's underworld, and a barber's son seeks a gentleman's rank.
Medium level2–5 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Picaresque Novel gathers Spanish stories and extracts about rogues who live by their wits. The first is Lazarillo de Tormes, an anonymous short book printed in 1554.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Lázaro learns his first hard lessons
Lazarillo de Tormes is told in Lázaro's own voice. He addresses an unnamed listener as Your Honor. To do so, Lázaro starts at the very beginning. He was born, he says, in a mill on the river Tormes, near Salamanca, which gives him his name.
His father, Tomé González, is caught stealing and goes off to war, where he dies. His mother, left poor, finds work at an inn. Soon she gives the boy to a blind beggar to lead him through the roads and towns. This is the first of many masters, and the start of Lázaro's schooling.
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What is the picaresque novel?
It is a form of fiction that began in Spain. A poor, low-born hero, called a picaro, tells his own story as he moves from master to master, living by his wits and showing the faults of society.
Who wrote Lazarillo de Tormes?
Nobody knows. The short book appeared anonymously in 1554 in several cities, and scholars have proposed many possible authors without agreement. The anonymity may have helped, because the book mocks clergy and false honor.
Is Rinconete and Cortadillo a true story?
No, it is fiction by Cervantes, published in 1613 in his Exemplary Novels. It is set in a real city, Seville, and uses the city's reputation for crime and bustle to build a comic, lifelike tale.
The author
Miguel de Cervantes
1547–1616 · Spanish novelist, poet and playwright
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547–1616) was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. He was born in Alcalá de Henares and died in Madrid. He published La Galatea in 1585 and Don Quixote in two parts, in 1605 and 1615. The Wanderings of Persiles and Sigismunda appeared after his death, in 1617.
More by Anónimo; Miguel de Cervantes; Francisco de Quevedo; Federico Ruiz Morcuende (editor)
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