THE LIFE OF LAZARILLO DE TORMES, translated by H. de Onis (1959, SC) VG

THE LIFE OF LAZARILLO DE TORMES: His Fortunes and Adversities, translated by Harriet de Onis (1959, SC) VGVintage softcover Book in Very Good Condition. Binding is tight and intact. Glossy cover is in very good condition, but has slightly yellowed, has minor corner bend and some minor creasing. Original price sticker on lower front cover. Pages have yellowed but are free of markings and dogears. Size: 5" x 7", 74 pages.Spain has produced two books that changed world literature: Don Quixote and Lazarillo de Tormes, the first picaresque novel ever written and the inspired precursor to works as various as Vanity Fair and Huckleberry Finn. Banned by the Spanish Inquisition after publication in 1554, Lazarillo was soon translated throughout Europe, where it was widely copied. The book is a favorite to this day for its vigorous colloquial style and the earthy realism with which it exposes human hypocrisy.The bastard son of a prostitute, Lazarillo goes to work for a blind beggar, who beats and starves him, while teaching him some very useful dirty tricks. The boy then drifts in and out of the service of a succession of masters, each vividly sketched and together revealing the corrupt world of imperial Spain. Its miseries are made all the more apparent by the candor and surprising good cheer with which young Lazarillo recounts his ever more curious fate.