Lazarillo and Don Quixote: Spanish Literature Classics

Lazarillo de Tormes

Lazarillo de Tormes appeared in 1554 and is anonymous. The work is written in the form of an autobiographical narrative: the rogue, narrator, and protagonist, tells his life in the first person. It consists of a prologue and seven chapters or treatises of unequal length.

In the preface, the autobiographical narrator addresses "Your Worship," a noble and unknown sire, to explain his "case." He decides to tell how his life has been so far. Thus, Lazarillo can be considered a long letter in which the narrator recounts his life to another person.

Plot Summary

Lazarus was born on the banks of the River Tormes in Salamanca, the son of a father who was a thief. While still very young, he entered the service of a blind man, cunning and cruel. After several episodes, he leaves the blind man by playing a cruel joke on him.

Then, he served a greedy cleric, who barely fed him. Fired for stealing food, he meets a new master, a very proud squire, concerned about his honor and nobility, but living miserably. Lazarus begs to feed them both until his master is gone. After serving a friar and a seller of ecclesiastical documents, he is employed as a water carrier and assistant to a sheriff.

Don Quixote

The first part of The Ingenious Don Quixote was published in 1605, and the second in 1615. The work is structured in two parts, and its action is organized around the three departures of Don Quixote. The first two departures are narrated in the first part and the last in the second.

Plot Summary

Alonso Quixano loses his mind from reading books of chivalry. Wanting to emulate his heroes, he changes his name to Don Quixote and sets off in search of adventure. Ideals guide him: to protect the weak, etc., and to find love. He chooses Dulcinea, a name he gives to a crude peasant girl from a nearby village. Grotesquely armed and riding an old horse named Rocinante, he comes to an inn, which he confuses with a castle, where he is knighted amidst the tricks of everyone. After being beaten by some merchants, a neighbor returns him home. While he is confined to bed, the priest and the barber burn most of his books.

Afterward, he starts the second departure, accompanied by a peasant, Sancho Panza, whom he persuaded to serve him as a squire in exchange for wealth and power. After many adventures in which he always fares badly (highlights include fighting against windmills that he mistakes for giants and freeing criminals who then beat him), he retires to Sierra Morena. His friends, the curate and the barber, who have come looking for him, lock him in a cage and bring him back to the village by tricking him.