The Life Of Lazarillo de Tormes

This first picaresque "novel"--more of a novella really--is an excellent introduction to the genre and a good book on its own merits. It is also funny (I laughed out loud more than a few times, and I don't do that for anybody but Wodehouse), the atmosphere is realistic and gritty, filled with memora......more

Lazarillo de Tormes, publicado en 1554, no es sólo una obra maestra de la literatura española; es un testimonio desgarrador de su época. Como los modelos latinos, el Satiricón y el Asno de oro, que reflejan la sociedad Romana de los primeros siglos, el Lazarillo es una sátira burlesca del siglo XVI......more

Where reading is concerned, I'm more LOTI than LOL. That's right. I'm admittedly frugal with my outwardly expressed laughter—unlike the normative social behavior these days wherein giggling becomes a nervous tic to punctuate every banal and unfunny comment. Maybe we want life to be funny so we laugh......more

When I rate my books, I take into account several factors, and unsurprisingly one of these is my enjoyment. Lazarillo de Tormes is easy and quick to read, and while not being the most original story out there (the synopsis being: Lazaro finds some funny ways to steal food from his masters. The end),......more

Uhh... not what I expected. That this book was found in the Spanish Queen's bureau as well as in any peasants' dingy quarters means little. Perhaps I am angry that the Spanish was verrrry difficult to read? It was old school Spanish, & although I try to get back into the groove, it seemed archaic an......more