LAZARILLO DE T6RMES, ly6 di tOr'mas, the first of the picaresque or rogue novels and the most complete early ex ample of modern realistic fiction, takes im portant rank in the history of literature as a satiric picture of Spanish life during the Re naissance, of vividness, directness and power. The story, although a sequence of episodes or adventures presented from the point of view of below stairs, possesses exceptional unity of characterization in which the satire is wholly fused, the progress of the action developing through the pursuit of various forms of false pretense as the anti-hero, or picaro, passes through the service of masters unprincipled as himself, who are differentiated from him by superior experience and social position, and by the hypocrisy Which the support of their position entails. In style the book is simple and vigorous,, with the bluntness of common speech, antedating the affectations of the Golden Age, surpassing in force and restraint the later productions of the picaresque school, all of the characteristics of which are to be found clearly marked in its pages. The prototypes of La zarillo must be sought among the fabliaux and later kindred Spanish developments at the hands of the archpriest of Hita and others; to these the 'Celestine and the precept of classical writers, Apuleius and Petronius, may be added. A number of traditional medizval tales are also incorporated. The influence of the story was continuously active during the 17th and 18th centuries, especially in the novel of Field ing and Smollett, while the 'Gil Bias) of Le Sage is a direct descendant. Of the seven episodes, or treatises, of the original work, the first, in which the boy Lazarillo enters the service of the blind beggar, is the most mordant and real, the apparent f-uit of direct observa tion.
The earliest known editions are those of Alcala and Burgos, 1554, based probably upon an original issued during the preceding year. Both were published anonymously, but in 1607 the authorship was attributed to the poet di plomatist, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, whose claim has since been rejected by competent scholars. Previous to publication, circulated in manuscript, to which fact variants in the versions current may be ascribed. An anonymous continuation appeared at Antwerp in 1555, but the most familiar of the second parts is that by Juan de Luna, a Spaniard resident at Paris (1620). All these second parts are fantastic and in large measure alle gorical, missing both the spirit and force of the original. was prohibited in the Index Expurgatorius of 1559, since which date it has circulated in Spain chiefly in mod ified form as the 'Lazarillo Castigado.' David Rowland completed an English translation (London 1576), probably through the French. Subsequent renderings are by Thomas Roscoe, (1832), and Louis How (New York 1917) ; upon scholarly and literary grounds, How's version is the most satisfactory. For history and bibliography of consult Chand ler, F. W., 'Romances of Roguery) (New York 1899); Fonger de Haan, 'An Outline of the History of the Novela Picaresca in Spain' (The Hague and New York 1903) ; Menendez y de la Novela Espafiola) (Madrid, in the 'Nueva Biblioteca de Autores also C. P. Wagner's introduction to How's translation.