The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes

The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes and of His Fortunes and Adversities is a Spanish novella, published anonymously in 1554 because of its anticlerical content. Even today, its author is still unknown.

It is considered the first picaresque novel in the history of literature. The book masterfully reflects hunger, hypocrisy and cunning in 16th century Spain, showing the misery of Spanish society at the time.

A young guide is at the service of a blind beggar, who starves him and gives him severe beatings, for which the boy has to use his picaresque to be able to feed behind the blind man's back. One day, the blind man discovers Lazarillo's traps and almost beats him to death. After this, poor Lazarillo runs away and tries to seek better fortune with other masters...

The author is mainly angry with the Church, showing all the clergymen who appear in the book as heartless and morally corrupt people. This led the Catholic Church to censor the work and only allow a censored version of it.

Due to the language used and the puns, its author must have been someone with a high level of education and high class. In addition, it is the first time that the protagonist of a critical literary work with society is someone from a humble class.

Sir Clements Markham's translation has been used for this digital edition of the book The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes