4.1 The Picaresque: Lazarillo

A new kind of hero

'Lazarillo de Tormes' (1554, anonymous) launched the novela picaresca: a poor boy (pícaro) serves a series of cruel masters, surviving by wit. It's told in first person as a letter.

Social satire

Through Lázaro's masters — a blind man, a stingy priest, a proud but starving squire — the novel satirizes hypocrisy across society, especially among clergy and nobility.

Relationships of power

Every relationship is transactional and unequal; survival depends on deceiving those above you. The picaresque exposes a harsh social order through interpersonal cruelty.

Key terms

'Lazarillo de Tormes'

1554, anonymous — the first picaresque novel

novela picaresca

a poor rogue serves cruel masters, satirizing society

pícaro

the lower-class trickster hero

Social satire

mocks hypocrisy of clergy and nobility

First-person letter

Lázaro narrates his own life

Try an AP-style question

Lazarillo de Tormes is the founding work of the…

1. picaresque novel
2. magical realist novel
3. romantic drama
4. Baroque sonnet