The Renaissance Novel
The Renaissance: The Novel
Narrative Form (15th Century)
During the Renaissance, narrative prose developed along two lines: one idealistic and adventurous, covering fantastic stories, and the other realistic.
Idealistic narratives include:
- Books of Chivalry: Narrating the exploits of a knight, paladin (defender) of honor and virtue.
- Italian Novella: Tangled intrigues and tragic or farcical themes.
- Pastoral Novel: The theme of love with idealized shepherds and nature.
- Byzantine Novel: Describing the perilous journeys, full of vicissitudes, of the protagonists.
- Moorish Novel: Sentimental stories developing between Moors and Christians at the end of the Reconquista.
Against these idealistic stories, realistic narratives emerged with Lazarillo de Tormes and Don Quixote.
Picaresque Novel
The picaresque novel began in 1554 with The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes and of His Fortunes and Adversities, a realistic work that appeared during the popularity of books of chivalry and pastoral novels.
The essential features of the picaresque are:
- An anti-heroic protagonist.
- Presentation of a low-born character.
- Service to many masters.
- Motivation by immediate needs, mainly hunger.
- Suffering hardship.
The picaresque novel follows a creative structure with these characteristics:
- A fictional autobiography.
- A story based on episodic memories.
- Shifting narrative action as the rogue moves from master to master and place to place.
- Events subordinated to a predetermined end.
Lazarillo
Lazarillo, narrated in the first person, tells the story of Lázaro, born into humble origins on the banks of the Tormes River. He learns to survive by his wits and becomes a town crier in Toledo, achieving a hypothetical social advancement.
The main theme is Lázaro’s apprenticeship, shown through episodic incidents. Most are lowbrow and subordinate to the character, showing the formation of Lázaro’s personality and explaining his final state of dishonor. Other themes include hunger, hypocrisy, false honor, poverty, lack of solidarity, human suffering, and begging.
The work consists of a prologue and seven treatises of varying length, forming a letter to an unknown recipient addressed as vuessa merced. Lázaro attempts to justify his state of dishonor.
The first three treatises, longer and more elaborate, describe Lázaro’s childhood adventures. The unifying themes are hunger and cunning for survival. From Treatise IV onward, Lázaro grows and improves his position, reaching what he considers his peak of good fortune. In Treatise VII, Lázaro is a mature man, married, and with a respectable profession as a town crier. Here, the central conflict is revealed: gossip about his wife’s relationship with the Archpriest of San Salvador.
The characters are archetypes, representing social classes or groups. Only Lázaro evolves. The style is simple, clear, and essential. The dialogue, despite literary embellishment, is animated with conversational phrases. Scholars suggest the work was intended to be anonymous, common for entertainment books, allowing criticism of social classes. However, it has been attributed to various authors. Its success was widespread and rapid, likely due to its reflection of real and even historical problems.
Cervantes’s Legacy
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was born in Alcalá de Henares in 1547. He fought in the Battle of Lepanto against the Turks, where he was wounded, losing the use of his left hand. He moved to Madrid and wrote plays to overcome financial difficulties. He married Catalina de Salazar and moved to Andalusia as a tax collector. Irregularities in his accounts led to imprisonment. He then moved to Valladolid, but the murder of a man at his doorstep led to his family’s imprisonment. He later moved to Madrid, where he published some of his works. He died on April 23, 1616.
Cervantes was a master of prose, experimenting with previous narrative models. With Don Quixote, he created something new and revolutionary. His first novel was La Galatea, a pastoral novel. His posthumous work, The Works of Persiles and Sigismunda, is also idealistic, revolving around love, though Byzantine rather than pastoral. In 1613, Cervantes published a collection of twelve short stories in the Italian style, titled Novelas Exemplares. The title connects them to medieval exempla, as, according to the prologue, each story offers a lesson. They are grouped into two series: Idealistic (“The English Spanish Lady” and “The Gypsy Girl”) and Realistic (“The Jealous Extremaduran” and “The Dialogue of the Dogs”).