Picaresque novel

The picaresque novel (Spanish: "picaresca", from "pícaro", for "rogue" or "rascal") is a popular subgenre of prose fiction which is usually satirical and depicts in realistic and often humorous detail the adventure of a roguish hero of low social class who lives by his or her wits in a corrupt society. This style of novel originated in Spain and flourished in Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and continues to influence modern literature. The genre has classical precedents in the Sanskrit legend Baital Pachisi, in Petronius's fragmentary "Satyricon", and in Apuleius's "The Golden Ass". The last two are rare surviving samples of a mostly lost genre, which was highly popular in Classical world, known as "Milesian tale". While elements of Chaucer and Boccaccio have a picaresque feel, the modern picaresque begins with Lazarillo de Tormes, published anonymously in Antwerp and Spain in 1554 and variously considered either the first picaresque novel or at least an... full article at wikipedia