The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes (Translated)

Published anonymously in 1554, The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes launched the picaresque novel and changed Western literature forever. For the first time, the narrator is a rogue: Lázaro, son of a dishonest miller, who learns to survive in the service of increasingly wretched masters.

A cunning blind man who teaches him deception. A miserly priest who starves him. A ruined nobleman who pretends grandeur while secretly begging. Through these masters, the book paints a ruthless portrait of sixteenth-century Spain — a society where appearance counts for more than virtue, and where the only way up is learning to look the other way.

The identity of the author remains one of the great mysteries of Spanish literature. The Inquisition banned the book just five years after its publication. This anamatilde edition is prepared for the contemporary reader: with an introduction, timeline, and glossary that make this foundational text fully accessible.