Picaresque Novel Example
Drafting / / July 04, 2021
It reflects the social customs in decline, narrating the adventures and tribulations of rogues and globetrotters. Lazarillo de Tormes (anonymous) and El Buscón, by Quevedo, represent the picaresque in the novel. I reproduce a piece of Lazarillo de Tormes.
"More evil tongues, which never were missing or will be missing, won't let us live, saying I don't know what, and I do know what, because they see my wife go to make her bed and cook her food, and God better help them than they say the truth.
Because even if she is not a woman, let her pay for these jokes, my lord has promised me what I think he will fulfill. That he spoke to me a very long day in front of her, and he told me:
—Lázaro de Tormes, who has to look at the sayings of evil tongues, will never prosper. I say this, because I would not be surprised, someone murmured, seeing your wife enter my house and leave her. She enters very much to your honor and hers. And this I promise you.
Therefore, do not look at what they can say, but at what you have to do.
I say to your advantage.
"Sir," I said, "I determined to get close to the good guys." It is true that some of my friends have told me something about that, and even more than three times they have certified me, that Before she married me she had given birth three times, speaking with reverence of your grace, because she is in front of her. " (Cf. Complementary bibliography, N? 31)