Lazarillo de Tormes

Spanish novel published anonymously in 1554 and recognized as the masterpiece of the picaresque tradition. It recounts the progress of an astute urchin through the society of his day, and is notable for its incisive satire of classes and institutions. It has often been attributed to the Spanish politician Diego Hurtado de Mendoza (1503–1575).

Lazarillo de Tormes

Spanish novel by an unknown writer, first published in 1554. Although the author does not describe the narrator Lazarillo as a pícaro (‘rogue’), some have considered this the first picaresque novel. Accurately dating the composition of the work and identifying the author have proved impossible, but the work's sophistication suggests an educated person.

The plot is episodic: Lazarillo serves a series of different, disreputable masters, and learns that social advancement is possible only by deception. The tale closes with Lazarillo as a town crier, believing himself a social success, but cuckolded by his employer and oblivious to the social opprobium attached to his employment. Although not the first Spanish work to involve low-life characters (La Celestina, for example, is earlier), Lazarillo was original in that its narrative purports to be an autobiography.

The novel was published in 1554 in Burgos, Antwerp, and Alcalá de Henares. The Alcalá edition contains probably spurious interpolations, the last of which suggests a sequel that in fact appeared in Antwerp in 1555. The book's popularity is attested by several translations, among these an English one of 1586.