Lazarillo de Tormes and The Swindler
Anonymous
Penguin Group USA, Inc.
<p>The two short novels in this volume follow the adventures of two unlikely heroes-delinquent <i>pícaros</i> living by their wits among corrupt priests and prostitutes, beggars and idle gentlemen, thieves, tricksters, and murderers. <i>Lazarillo de Tormes</i> (1554), published anonymously, provided a literary model for Cervantes' <i>Don Quixote</i> and describes the ingenious ruses employed by a boy from Salamanca to outwit a succession of disreputable masters. Francisco de Quevedo's <i>The Swindler</i> (1626) is a comic yet brutal and sordid account of a servant who wants to become a gentleman but ends up a cardsharp and common criminal.</p>