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Picaresque Novels and Novelists

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on March 22, 2019 • ( 0 )

The Spanish words picaresque and picaro achieved currency in Spain shortly after 1600. Today they are terms in literary criticism, sometimes misused because of the vague meaning attached to them. The revival of the genre in the twentieth century was accompanied by an increased critical interest in this type of novel, with the result that some critics try to stretch the definition of the picaresque while others attempt to restrict it. Still, some features are generally accepted as distinct characteristics of the picaresque, including a loose, episodic structure; a rogue-hero (the picaro) who is on the move and goes through a series of encounters with representatives of a hostile and corrupt world; a first-person narrative; and a satirical approach to the society in which the adventures occur.

The typical social background of the picaresque involves a disordered, disintegrating world in which traditional values are breaking down. The instability of the social structure permits the emergence of the picaro, a resilient rogue but not a criminal, a person of low birth or uncertain parentage, an outsider whose adventures take him or her from innocence to experience. In this sense, the picaresque novel has affinities with the bildungsroman, but unlike the protagonist of the latter, the picaro is a fixed character. While he (traditionally a “he”) learns survival techniques from his adventures, he does not change inwardly; he remains faithful to his healthy instincts without questioning the larger order of things. Pressured by circumstances to choose between integrity and survival, the picaro makes the pragmatic choice and learns to adjust to the corrupt values of his environment.

Sixteenth Century Spain

The picaresque genre emerged in sixteenth century Spain, an age of turmoil and upheaval when medieval homogeneity and social stability were giving way to Renaissance mobility and a greater emphasis on the importance of the individual. All Spanish picaresque novels present a low-life character passing from master to master in search of some financial stability, thus providing a splendid occasion for the author to give an overall picture of Spain in an age of disintegrating values. The differences between the two first examples of the genre, however, already indicate its protean nature.

Lazarillo de Tormes, published anonymously in 1554 (English translation, 1576), presents a picaro, a victim of tricksters who by necessity becomes a trickster himself. The novel’s anonymous author was the first to employ a realistic first-person narrator, creating a countergenre to the fastidious courtly literature of the period. Some critics suggest that both the anonymous author of Lazarillo de Tormes and Mateo Alemán, the writer of the second Spanish picaresque, were Jews or converted Jews, outsiders to the mainstream of Spanish society; in any case, the picaresque view of life is an outsider’s point of view as far as protagonist and author are concerned.

Fear of starvation and anger are Lazarillo’s true masters. The lesson he draws from his experience of privation and exploitation is not one of resistance or revolt; on the contrary, it is one of conformity. His is a kind of success story because, at the end of the novel, he finds a secure job as a town crier, but this is qualified success, since he pays for it with his honor, marrying the archpriest’s mistress. He accepts the archpriest’s advice to concern himself only with his own advantage. The advice, of course, reflects the hypocritical standards of Spanish society. Lazarillo is more than ready to heed the counsel; his bitter adventures have taught him to be content with low expectations. The feeling of being defenseless and unprotected against the wickedness of the world lends a tragic note to the story of his childhood and adolescence. Though most of his adventures make the reader laugh, anguish and despair prevail throughout the novel. The comic and the serious exist side by side, adding a note of ambiguity. Lazarillo de Tormes is a mixture of childish immaturity, innocence, and bitter cynicism; it excels in a fusion of modes and attitudes. At the end, Lazarillo compares his rising fortunes to Spain’s rising political power; consequently, the unknown author not only puts his picaro’s story in an ambiguous light but also extends that ambiguity to the whole empire of Charles V.

A Different Picaro

King Charles V was succeeded by Philip II and Philip III; disillusionment followed triumph in the history of the empire. The picaresque novel, from the beginning a protean genre, adjusted to the new demands. Despair and anguish are present already in Lazarillo’s story, but the picaro protagonist in Mateo Alemán’s Guzmán de Alfarache (1599, 1604) is first of all a tormented soul. As an investigator of the prison system, Alemán was well acquainted with prison life. In Guzmán he presents a repentant sinner. The confessions reveal a lower-class character whom a dehumanizing society has forced to adjust to its corrupt values; the emphasis is not on Guzmán’s adventures, however, but rather on his tormented soul. He is a kind of psychological picaro, one very much concerned with his soul. Guzmán compares the human predicament to warfare: an existence without any certainty or truth, a life full of hypocrisy and instability.

In spite of the many hilarious tricks played by the rogues on their masters, the Spanish picaresque novels were not intended to be amusing. There is a subtle balance of comedy and seriousness in Lazarillo de Tormes and Guzmán de Alfarache ; at the same time, however, through the encounters of the rogue-hero with various masters—all of them representing the hypocritical, materialistic standards of contemporary Spanish society— these picaresque novels give a fragmented but valid and realistic picture of a society in change.

France and Germany

The protean nature of the picaresque novel made it easy for the genre to spread rapidly through Europe. Adaptations of Lazarillo de Tormes soon appeared in France and England. Guzmán de Alfarache soon appeared in Germany. The Spanish original blended in each country with the native tradition, and the Spanish picaro turned into the English rogue, later a foundling; into the German Schelm ; and in France, into a gentilhomme. Despite differences in each of these countries, the picaresque consistently performed the function of a countergenre, making legitimate the serious attention given to low-life characters. With the advance of capitalism, the middle class grew in size and influence, and its members found pleasure in a genre that centered on the plight of a low-life character seeking upward mobility. At the same time, printing techniques improved, and booksellers, in order to boost their profits, encouraged more and more printings of picaresque fiction because of its appeal to the taste of the bourgeoisie. In the following centuries the genre came to be adopted to reflect a bourgeois world view rather than a truly picaresque outlook. With the optimistic attitudes of the Enlightenment, the picaresque novel lost its quality of despair; the former picaro, though in different degrees and in different ways, came to be integrated into the mainstream of society.

In Germany, the Spanish picaresque merged with the native tradition of tales about false beggars. The most significant German novel of the picaresque type is Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen’s The Adventurous Simplicissimus (1912). The background of the book fits the requirements of the picaresque atmosphere: The Thirty Years’ War was certainly a period of disorder and disintegration in German history. Simplicius Simplicissimus, as his name implies, is a naïve, simple, ignorant boy; his peasant background emphasizes this feature. He is almost another Parzival, a “pure fool,” but the war destroys his pastoral life. His picaresque wanderings eventually lead him to live the life of a hermit. Compared to what is considered normal and sane in the gambling, warring, drinking, whoring society of contemporary Germany, the seemingly foolish idealism of the hermit is perhaps the only truly sane attitude amid universal madness. While society may consider Simplicissimus mad, his madness makes more sense than the reality created by the so-called respectable people. The German picaro, by tearing off the masks, shows the real face of society behind the facade.

In France, the Spanish picaresque merged with the tradition of criminal biographies and books on vagabonds; in the seventeenth century the genre came to be exploited by writers such as Charles Sorel and Paul Scarron, whose comic, realistic novels functioned as a countergenre to the improbable romances that flooded the market. The French picaro, born into the middle class, uses his tricks to unmask the society to which he belongs by birth; in consequence, the social criticism always implicit in the genre becomes more obvious. By far the most famous French picaresque novel is Alain-René Lesage’s Gil Blas (1715). Though the adventures of this son of humble parents take place in Spain, Gil Blas is different from the original Spanish picaro. Influenced by Molière and La Bruyère, satirists of morals and manners, Lesage turned his Gil Blas into an observer of rogues rather than a participant in roguery. Indeed, Gil Blas is a noble-hearted adventurer who, in view of his virtuous behavior, deserves the success he achieves in the end.

In England, the first translation of Lazarillo de Tormes appeared in 1576, the work of David Rowland; the first English Guzmán de Alfarache appeared in 1622. Soon thereafter, the Spanish picaresque merged with the native tradition of anatomies of roguery. The best early English picaresque is Thomas Nashe’s The Unfortunate Traveller: Or, The Life of Jack Wilton (1594). Guzmán de Alfarache was very popular with translators; Richard Head’s and Frances Kirkman’s The English Rogue (1665, 1668) is the best among English adaptations of the original Guzmán de Alfarache. In the eighteenth century, a kind of picaresque enjoyed a boom in English literature. Most of Tobias Smollett’s fiction is in the picaresque vein. In his outstanding novel The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748), the protagonist, an orphan, foreshadows the English picaro as a foundling. He is a decent young person, and his inherent virtues contrast sharply with the cruelty and viciousness of most of the other characters in the novel. They stand for the attitudes of a dehumanized society that subjects the young protagonist to all kinds of hardships and misfortunes on land and on sea. Resilient, in the true picaresque spirit, Roderick Random bounces back after each misadventure. Although his personal fortunes are straightened out in the end when he finds his father and is happily married, on the whole, Smollett presents a rather gloomy view of the human condition.

Daniel Defoe’s The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, Written from Her Own Memorandums (1722) is an episodic fictional autobiography of a picara, a female rogue. She is a true criminal whose crimes are rooted in capitalistic attitudes. Indeed, Moll is a bourgeois picara; inspired by the spirit of profit and investment, she acquires the fortune necessary for investment in the New World by the only means available to her: thievery and prostitution. Her behavior and standards reflect on the materialistic values of the society to which she wants to conform.

Henry Fielding’s The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling ( 1749) illustrates better than any other novel of the eighteenth century the transformation of the picaro from a roguish outsider to a belonger. Tom Jones is a foundling and thus an outsider—as a true picaro is expected to be—and in the course of the novel he must take to the road, where he undergoes various adventures. There is no doubt, however, that by the end of his journey he will be integrated into society. As a matter of fact, Tom Jones is a kind of vanishing picaro on his way to becoming the traditional English fictional hero. This hero always ultimately conforms to accepted norms. Tom Jones’s place in the world of Allworthy is only being questioned in order to provide adventures for the amusement of the reader. The element of economic necessity is entirely lacking; in consequence, ambiguity and despair vanish and the adventures provoke wholehearted, easy laughter.

The next step on the path of the vanishing English picaro falls in the nineteenth century. In Charles Dickens’s Pickwick Papers (1836-1837, serial; 1837, book), the picaresque structure is nothing more than a form of convenience. The rogue is Jingle, yet the hero of the adventure-series is the most respectable Mr. Pickwick. He is the picaro turned respectable, in an age when respectability, exemplified by Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort, dominated British society. Mr. Pickwick goes through a series of hilariously comic adventures, gains experience, and even goes to prison, but in the end he returns to society. Integration, so important in British fiction, is achieved at the end of the adventures.

The United States

The American development of the picaresque followed a radically different course. American dark humor, born on the pioneer frontier, recalls in its mixture of laughter and terror the atmosphere of the early Spanish picaresque. The early American, a lonely figure on a vast, unknown, and possibly hostile continent, is a distant cousin of Lazarillo and Guzmán. It is not surprising, then, that the novel from which, according to Ernest Hemingway , all American literature derives, Mark Twain ’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), is an American picaresque story not only in the obvious picaresque pattern of Huck’s adventures but also in the elements of loneliness and terror that fill up the frame.

Huck is an outsider, belonging to the lowest rank of whites in his society; he recognizes that society pays only lip service to ideals and decides to stay true to his own conscience. While the adventures of his trip down the Mississippi match Lazarillo’s experiences of near starvation, the haunting experience with his own conscience over the case of Jim, the runaway black slave, makes Huck a relative of Guzmán, tortured about his soul. Huck, the American picaro, is a rogue with a conscience who chooses to listen to his own heart rather than follow the sham values of society.

The Picaro in Modern Fiction

Many features of the original Spanish picaresque pattern and of its picaro-rogue hero correspond to trends in modern fiction and to the concept of the modern limited hero or antihero. The episodic, open-ended plot is an appropriate device for the modern writer, who knows “only broken images” for presenting the fragmented reality of a disorderly, chaotic universe. The picaro is not unlike the modern alienated individual, born into a world turned upside down. Many critics, therefore, consider the picaresque mode to be one of the most characteristic in twentieth century fiction, while others speak of a picaresque renaissance.

Irish writer James Joyce ’s Ulysses (1922), the archetype of modern fiction , shows striking similarities with the picaresque. Joyce’s “joco-serious” recalls the unbalanced Spanish picaresque atmosphere of half-comical and half-serious attitudes. Leopold Bloom, a Jew in Ireland, is an outsider in society; as a betrayed husband, he also is an outsider in his family. Both Ulysses and the Spanish picaresque present a series of experiences rather than a coherent narrative. They present a roguelike hero, who is no criminal but still less than an example of virtue and whose life is a hard-luck story.

Bloom experiences a despair and anxiety which was alien to the more respectable picaros of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries but which recalls the mood of Lazarillo de Tormes .

The English writer Joyce Cary also used the picaresque genre for his first trilogy, which concerns the life of the artist Gulley Jimson, a rascally but appealing picaro. Interestingly, only the first and third volumes can qualify as picaresque novels, for the narrator of the second book, To Be a Pilgrim (1942), is Thomas Wilcher, who does not fit the definition of a picaro. Wilcher is a member of the establishment, a rich, respectable lawyer who believes himself to be on the way to the Heavenly City. However, the first novel in the trilogy, Herself Surprised (1941), is narrated by a picara worthy to be classed with Moll Flanders; she not only habitually disregards the moral laws but also has no difficulty justifying even the most flagrant betrayal of trust—for instance, systematically stealing from Mr. Wilcher while she pretends to be the perfect housekeeper. Like Moll, Sara is eventually caught; Herself Surprised is written from prison. Gulley, who was probably the most important man in Sara’s life, also falls victim to the law. The Horse’s Mouth (1944, 1957), which he narrates, begins with his release from prison, an old man, but still adept at lying, cheating, stealing, and justifying his sins as necessitated by his art. Nevertheless, Gulley’s zest for life and his ability to laugh both at the world and at himself make him a particularly appealing picaro.

The picaresque pattern also emerged in the novels of Britain’s Angry Young Men in the 1950’s. The angry picaresque novel of postwar Great Britain resulted from serious discontent with the welfare state. The decade found England in unsettled conditions, with the empire falling to pieces and the class system only slowly weakening in its traditional rigidity. Just as the Spanish picaresque novel arose in part as an expression of the social resentment of the underdog against the privileged classes, so Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim (1954), John Wain’s Hurry on Down (1953), and Alan Sillitoe’s Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1958) reject the values of the phony middle class. Yet their protagonists share Lazarillo’s dream of belonging; in consequence, the angry picaresque stays within the pattern of integration characteristic of British fiction.

The American picaresque novel of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries may describe a restless small-town youth, as in John Updike ’s Rabbit, Run (1960), or a wild drive across the continent, as in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road (1957). The present-day American rogues display an old American attitude; they try to recapture the heroic spirit of the frontier and confront the nature of humanity, of the self. The modern American picaro is an outsider; he may be a sensitive adolescent shunning the phony world, like Holden Caulfield in J. D. Salinger ’s The Catcher in the Rye (1951), or a man fighting the military in order to survive, like Yossarian in Joseph Heller ’s Catch-22 (1961); he may be a member of a minority group—African American, like Ralph Ellison ’s Invisible Man in his novel Invisible Man (1952); Irish, like Ken Kesey ’s McMurphy in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962); or Jewish, like Saul Bellow ’s Augie March in The Adventures of Augie March (1953).

Augie March is the product of the Chicago ghetto, the son of Jewish immigrants forced by his dehumanizing environment into a picaro attitude. A servant to many masters, resilient and ready to adjust, Augie ultimately refuses any attempt to be adopted and preserves his outsider status. Practical and pragmatic, he is able to do almost anything. While he is open to any new experience, he remains faithful to his own self, considering all his adventures as means to find his true identity. The Invisible Man, who is black, learns to accept his invisibility in white America; his picaresque experiences take him through a series of rejections at the end of which he emerges as a truly protean individual and even a trickster.

A Picaresque Renaissance

Despite the protests of purists, who felt that the term “picaresque” was being applied too loosely, in the last three decades of the twentieth century novels thus described appeared in ever-increasing numbers, as did scholarly articles about specific works and books in which the genre was discussed more generally. Not surprisingly, much of the scholarship focused on the literature of Spain and Latin America, where the tradition has always flourished, and to a lesser degree on fiction from England and America. Occurrences of the picaresque novel were also found in some unexpected places, such as Morocco and Japan.

If the latter part of the twentieth century did see not only the preservation of the genre but also a very real picaresque renaissance, it can be explained by the fact that the form is so adaptable. Danny Deck, the successful writer-protagonist in Larry McMurtry ’s All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers (1972), has little in common with the drug-dependent drifter in Jay McInerney’s Bright Lights, Big City (1984), which is one of the few picaresque novels written in the second person. In All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers , Danny travels from Texas to California and back to Texas, sometimes stopping for a time but always moving on, until at the end of the book he comes to a halt in the borderland between Texas and Mexico, his future uncertain. By contrast, all the adventures of McInerney’s picaro take place in Manhattan over the course of one week, with frequent flashbacks into the past, and his story ends with his realizing that he must reclaim the values he was taught in childhood.

The quest of the picaro-narrator in Paul Auster ’s Moon Palace (1989) is also successful, though it takes some time for the aptly named Marco Stanley Fogg to realize that his own lack of purpose is rooted in his knowing nothing about his father and little about his mother, who is now dead. The scope of the novel is broadened geographically, temporally, and thematically by an interpolated narrative, a story told by the elderly man for whom Fogg works, which with the customary picaresque dependence upon happy coincidence enables the hero to identify his father and propels the hero westward across the continent to his own rebirth. The American Western novel, long a genre that easily accommodated the picaresque, reached what may be considered its literary pinnacle with the work of Cormac McCarthy , whose teenage runaway protagonist known only as “the kid” animated Blood Meridian: Or, the Evening Redness in the West (1985). In McCarthy’s Western trilogy—the National Book Award winner All the Pretty Horses (1992), The Crossing (1994), and Cities of the Plain (1998)—each novel is a picaresque story of a young man on the move, facing tests and facing challenges from other men.

The Historical Picaresque

Interjected narratives, letters, and diaries have sometimes extended the time frame of picaresque novels a short distance into the past, but as long as one aim of the genre was to satirize a corrupt society, it did not occur to writers to set such works in the distant past. Late in the twentieth century, however, a new form appeared, in which a fictional picaro operates within a historical setting. In his introduction to Flashman (1969), British writer George MacDonald Fraser pretends to have discovered the papers of a minor character in Thomas Hughes’s Tom Brown’s School Days (1858). In Flashman and in the twelve that followed it, including Flashman on the March (2005), Harry Paget Flashman exposes himself as an unprincipled rogue, a lecher, and a coward who not only seduces every woman who catches his eye but also survives such episodes as the Indian Mutiny, the Charge of the Light Brigade, China’s Taiping Rebellion, John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, and Little Big Horn, winning a reputation as a hero and eventually rising to the rank of brigadier general. Fraser’s plots are exciting, but the secret of his popularity is the character of Flashman, perhaps because no matter how much he deceives others, he is always honest with himself.

In other picaresque novels, however, the picaro is very different from Lazarillo de Tormes or Flashman . A first-person narrator with a need to survive, the picaro candidly relates his adventures, while also serving as an observer. Having attached himself to a historical figure, the picaro talks with and observes him or her, thus presenting the author’s interpretation of history. In E. L. Doctorow ’s Billy Bathgate ( 1989), for example, the title character is involved with the Depression-era gangster Dutch Schultz, and in Larry McMurtry ’s Anything for Billy (1988), the inept train robber Ben Sippy develops a real affection for Billy Bone, or Billy the Kid, the legendary outlaw of the Old West. The primary goal of both narrators is to survive, Billy by finding a way out of the slums, Ben by fleeing from a household of females and the stifling life of a Philadelphia gentleman. However, they also have a boundless curiosity, and they knowingly risk their lives in order to satisfy it. The protagonist in Jo hnny One-Eye: A Tale of the American Revolution (2008), by Jerome Charyn, is a double agent who encounters historical figures on both sides of the conflict: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Lord Admiral Richard Howe, and Benedict Arnold. Like the other picaresque heroes, he is a close observer of the world around him, and he describes everything in detail as he moves through the war and through the island of Manhattan looking for the identity of his father.

The Feminist Picaresque

Another new development in the late twentieth century picaresque renaissance was the novel with a feminist slant. Though picaras had appeared in earlier works, such as Moll Flanders , now picaresque novels written by women and about women began to proliferate. They varied widely in content and in tone. Rita Mae Brown’s semi-autobiographical Rubyfruit Jungle (1973) is both a moving description of what it is like to be rejected by society and a defiant celebration of lesbian sexuality , as is Sarah Waters’s Tipping the Velvet (1998), a lighthearted picaresque of lesbian love. Margaret Atwood’s Lady Oracle (1976) features another kind of rebel, one who would be seen more and more frequently in fiction during the years that followed: a mature woman who becomes a runaway. Atwood’s heroine, Joan Foster, a writer, is so tired of her marriage, her ongoing affair, and her fans that she decides to fake her own death and run off to Italy. By the time she is found out and forced to return, this picaresque heroine has made some important decisions about the direction her life will take. Bella, the protagonist of Helen Zahavi’s Dirty Weekend (1991), is on the run from a neighbor who has molested her, and in her flight she meets and kills seven abusive men.

Picaresque novels by women have taken many different shapes. There are dozens of fantasies by writers such as Marion Zimmer Bradley, Jo Clayton, Sharon Green, Tanith Lee, Anne Maxwell, Anne McCaffrey, and Janet Morris, all of which are feminist in philosophy and picaresque in form. The picaresque is also allied with Magical Realism, as in Isabel Allende’s Eva Luna (1988), in which the title character survives one crisis after another with the aid of unseen powers and the force of her own imagination. Erica Jong’s Fanny: Being the True History of Fanny Hackabout-Jones (1980) is much more like the picaresque novels of the eighteenth century, the period in which it is set. The author uses not only the language, capitalization, and punctuation of novels written in that era but also a huge cast of characters and a plot dependent on mistaken identities, chance meetings, and improbable coincidences. As in the historical novels already mentioned, the fictional Fanny meets and comments on real people; among her customers in a brothel are Dean Swift, William Hogarth, and John Cleland, whose Fanny Hill: Or, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1748-1749) Jong insists is an inaccurate account of Fanny Hill’s life. Fanny could well have been written in the eighteenth century, as it appears to be, were it not for the fact that the author’s twentieth century sensibility and, specifically, her feminism are evident in every one of Fanny’s pronouncements.

A Genre of Lasting Value

One of the reasons for the widespread use of the picaresque form at the end of the twentieth century was obviously its flexibility. It has been utilized by writers from very different cultures, representing a wide range of literary traditions, from the historical novel to Magical Realism and fantasy. Picaresque works can be confessional, autobiographical, philosophical, or savagely satirical, and their protagonists can range from the unfortunate to thoroughgoing scoundrels. Some picaros and picaras even reform. What they all share with their Spanish originals is an exuberant love of life and a determination to survive in order to enjoy it.

The picaresque renaissance can also be attributed to the times themselves. The disorder, instability, and chaotic nature of the age may remind one of the transitional character of the sixteenth century. Modern men and women, dwarfed by an awareness of their lack of control over events in the outside world as well as over their own behavior, cannot hope for heroism; the best they can achieve is a kind of picaro status—an unwilling conformist, a rebel-victim, a picaresque saint. In the protean genre of the picaresque, sixteenth century Spanish writers created a fictional form appropriate for presenting the human predicament in an age of turmoil and instability.

Source :  Rollyson, Carl. Critical Survey Of Long Fiction . 4th ed. New Jersey: Salem Press, 2010 Bibliography Benito-Vessels, Carmen, and Michael Zappala, eds. The Picaresque: A Symposium on the Rogue’s Tale. Newark, N.J.: University of Delaware Press, 1994. Bjornson, Richard. The Picaresque Hero in European Fiction. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1977. Dunn, Peter N. The Spanish Picaresque Novel. Boston: Twayne, 1979. Friedman, Edward H. The Antiheroine’s Voice: Narrative Discourse and Transformations of the Picaresque. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1987. Gutiérrez, Helen Turner. The Reception of the Picaresque in the French, English, and German Traditions. New York: Peter Lang, 1995. Kaler, Anne K. The Picara: From Hera to Fantasy Heroine. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1991. Miller, Stuart. The Picaresque Novel. Cleveland, Ohio: Press of Case Western Reserve University, 1967. Monteser, Frederick. The Picaresque Element in Western Literature. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1975. Sherrill, Rowland A. Road-Book America: Contemporary Culture and the New Picaresque. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000. Wicks, Ulrich. Picaresque Narrative, Picaresque Fictions: A Theory and Research Guide. New York: Greenwood Press, 1989.

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Exploring Picaresque Fiction: A Comprehensive Guide

What is picaresque fiction, origins of picaresque fiction, characteristics of picaresque fiction, notable picaresque novels and authors, how to read picaresque fiction, why picaresque fiction matters, picaresque fiction in contemporary literature, further reading and resources on picaresque fiction.

As a reader, you may have stumbled upon a genre that's as adventurous as it is intriguing - picaresque fiction. You might have found yourself reading a novel filled with the escapades of a lovable rogue, and thought: this is different, this is exciting. Well, you've entered the world of picaresque fiction, a genre that's as rich in history as it is in character. So, let's explore the definition of picaresque and uncover what makes it so compelling.

The definition of picaresque, in its simplest form, is fiction that follows the adventures of a hero—or more accurately, an antihero—who's not exactly the most upstanding citizen. However, there's more to it than that.

Originating from the Spanish word 'picaro', which means 'rogue' or 'rascal', picaresque fiction is characterized by the journey of its lead character, often a low-born individual with a penchant for bending the rules. Throughout their journey, they face various challenges, meet a variety of characters, and often find themselves in humorous or absurd situations. This episodic narrative style gives the reader a window into different aspects of society, all through the eyes of our roguish hero.

So, what sets picaresque fiction apart? It's the unique blend of adventure, satire, and social commentary, all wrapped up in a continuous narrative that makes you root for the underdog. Remember, though, our hero isn't your typical knight in shining armor. Instead, they're more likely to have a quick wit, a flexible moral code, and a knack for landing in—and out of—trouble.

Now that you've got a grasp on the definition of picaresque, let's dive deeper into its origins, characteristics, and why it matters in literature today.

The journey to understanding the roots of picaresque fiction takes us back to 16th century Spain. Picture this—you're in an era where society is rapidly changing, and literature is evolving to mirror this shift. And in this dynamic time, a new kind of hero was born.

The first known picaresque novel, "Lazarillo de Tormes," was published anonymously due to its satirical take on the church and the nobility. It introduced readers to a world seen through the eyes of a picaro, a hero who was far from noble in birth or behavior but was relatable with his human faults and virtues. This novel set the stage for a genre that would captivate readers for centuries to come.

As the genre grew in popularity, it crossed borders and found its way into literatures of various countries—England, Russia, Germany, and France, to name a few. Each culture adapted the genre to reflect its societal norms and values, giving rise to diverse interpretations of the picaresque novel. Despite their differences, they all shared the essence of the picaresque—the adventures and trials of a lovable rogue navigating through society.

So, the next time you find yourself lost in the pages of a picaresque novel, remember—you're not just reading a story, you're stepping into a rich tradition that has evolved over centuries and across cultures. It's a literary journey that offers a unique perspective on society and human nature. Can you see why understanding the origins of picaresque fiction can make your reading experience even richer?

Let's dive into the characteristics of picaresque fiction that define this genre and set it apart from other literary styles. Raise your hand if you love knowing what makes a book tick! I see those hands. Let's jump in.

First off, a picaresque novel revolves around a picaro. Now, what's a picaro, you ask? Well, it's a kind of anti-hero — a character who's not exactly an angel, but whom we love anyway because of their wit, charm, and knack for getting into (and out of) sticky situations. They often come from low social ranks and use their street-smart ways to navigate through society.

Next up is the episodic structure of the story. Think of it like your favorite TV series—each episode is a new adventure for our picaro. This episodic nature allows the author to explore different aspects of society and human nature, as the picaro moves from one predicament to another.

And then we have satire. Oh, the satire! Picaresque fiction uses humor, irony, and exaggeration to criticize society, institutions, beliefs, and more. It's a mirror that reflects the world in a way that is both funny and thought-provoking.

Lastly, picaresque novels often include detailed descriptions of people and places. Remember, these stories were born in a time before photography or the Internet. So, they served as a window into different walks of life, different parts of the world.

And there you have it—the defining characteristics of picaresque fiction. The next time you pick up a picaresque novel, see if you can spot these traits. It's like a literary treasure hunt!

Now that you know what to look for in a picaresque novel, let's explore some books and authors that have left their mark in this genre. This is like taking a walk down the hall of fame of picaresque fiction, so let's get started!

A list of notable picaresque novels would be incomplete without "Lazarillo de Tormes". Although the author remains anonymous, this Spanish novel has made waves since its publication in 1554. It's a classic tale of a young boy making his way through life, with all its ups and downs. If you're looking for the original definition of picaresque, this is it.

Next up is "Moll Flanders" by Daniel Defoe. Published in 1722, this English novel tells the story of Moll, a woman who refuses to be a victim of her circumstances. She's smart, she's cunning, and she's unapologetically herself. Now, isn't that refreshing?

And then there's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain. If you haven't read this one yet, you're in for a treat. Huck is a picaro in every sense of the word. He's not afraid to bend the rules, and his adventures along the Mississippi river are nothing short of legendary.

Finally, we have "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac. Published in 1957, this novel is often considered a defining work of the postwar Beat and Counterculture generations. It's a journey across America, filled with jazz, poetry, and the quest for freedom. It's picaresque fiction with a modern twist.

Each of these novels and authors have contributed to the rich tapestry of picaresque fiction. They've given us unforgettable characters and stories that continue to inspire readers around the world. So, why not add one (or all) of these to your reading list?

Are you ready to dive into the world of picaresque fiction? Hold on, not so fast! If you jump right in, you might miss the hidden gems that make this genre so special. So, here are some tips to help you get the most out of your reading.

1. Expect the Unexpected Picaresque fiction is full of surprises. Whether it's a sudden plot twist or an unlikely hero, this genre keeps you on your toes. So, keep an open mind and be ready for anything.

2. Pay attention to the Protagonist In picaresque fiction, the protagonist or the picaro is the heart of the story. They're often a misfit or an outsider, navigating their way through society. Watch how they interact with the world around them, and you'll get a deeper understanding of the story.

3. Enjoy the Journey Picaresque novels are all about the journey, not the destination. They're episodic in nature, so don't rush through the pages. Take your time to savor each adventure, and you'll see the beauty in the mundane.

4. Look for Social Commentary While picaresque fiction can be entertaining, it often sheds light on the social issues of its time. So, look beyond the humor and the satire. You might just discover a powerful message hidden beneath the surface.

Reading picaresque fiction is like embarking on a literary adventure. It's exciting, it's unpredictable, and it's enlightening. So, grab a book, find a cozy spot, and let the adventures begin!

So, you may be wondering, why should we care about picaresque fiction anyway? Is it just another genre to add to our reading list? Well, let's break it down.

1. A Reflection of Society Picaresque fiction is like a mirror held up to society. It portrays the world through the eyes of an outsider—a picaro—and highlights the social, economic, and political realities of the time. So, when you read a picaresque novel, you're not just enjoying a good story, you're getting a snapshot of history.

2. A Unique Narrative Style The episodic nature of picaresque fiction sets it apart from other genres. This unique narrative style allows the author to explore different themes and settings in each chapter, keeping readers engaged from start to finish.

3. A Celebration of the Underdog Picaresque fiction is filled with underdog heroes who defy societal norms and expectations. Their struggles and triumphs offer a fresh perspective on life and remind us that sometimes, winning isn't everything, it's how you play the game.

4. A Source of Inspiration Many modern authors have been inspired by the picaresque tradition, from Mark Twain to J.K. Rowling. So, in a way, when you're reading a picaresque novel, you're not just reading a book, you're tracing the roots of some of your favorite stories.

In short, picaresque fiction matters because it offers a unique blend of entertainment, social commentary, and narrative innovation. So, the next time you pick up a picaresque novel, remember, you're not just reading a story, you're participating in a rich literary tradition.

Alright, let's talk about how picaresque fiction fits into the books we read today. Has it disappeared? Or has it just put on a modern disguise? Let's find out.

1. Picaresque Themes in Modern Storytelling Even if you haven't picked up a traditional picaresque novel, you might have encountered its themes in modern literature. From Harry Potter's adventures to Katniss Everdeen's survival story, picaresque elements continue to resonate with readers. The idea of an underdog tackling life's challenges head-on has universal appeal, after all.

2. Picaresque Meets Other Genres Picaresque fiction doesn't just stay in its lane. It loves to mingle with other genres. You can find picaresque elements in science fiction, fantasy, and even detective novels. For example, the "Star Wars" series has been called a space picaresque due to its episodic structure and the journey of its protagonist, Luke Skywalker.

3. The Rise of the Anti-Hero In picaresque fiction, our hero is often an anti-hero, and this concept has gained popularity in contemporary literature. Characters like Walter White from "Breaking Bad" or Lisbeth Salander from "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" follow the picaresque tradition of complex, morally ambiguous protagonists who challenge societal norms.

4. The Influence of Picaresque Fiction on Modern Authors Many modern authors have drawn inspiration from the picaresque tradition. For instance, John Green's "Looking for Alaska" and Donna Tartt's "The Goldfinch" both feature protagonists who echo the picaro's journey through life's ups and downs.

So, even though picaresque fiction has its roots in the 16th century, it's still alive and kicking today. Its influence on contemporary literature is undeniable and continues to shape the stories we love. Next time you read a book, see if you can spot the picaresque elements. You might be surprised at how often they pop up!

Alright! Now that we've explored the definition of picaresque, its history, characteristics, and impact on contemporary literature, you may want to dig a bit deeper. So, where should you go next?

1. Classic Picaresque Novels For starters, nothing beats reading the classics. "Lazarillo de Tormes" and "Don Quixote" are excellent places to start. Not only are these novels entertaining, but they also give you a first-hand feel of the picaresque style.

2. Modern Picaresque Novels If you're interested in how picaresque has evolved, try reading some modern takes on the genre. Novels like "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac and "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole are great examples of picaresque in the modern era.

3. Academic Books and Articles For those who love to dive deep into literary analysis, several academic books and articles discuss the picaresque genre. You'll find works such as "The Picaresque: Tradition and Displacement" edited by Giancarlo Maiorino insightful.

4. Online Resources There are numerous online platforms where you can learn more about picaresque fiction. Websites like Project Gutenberg offer free access to many classic picaresque novels. On the other hand, literary analysis websites and online courses can provide further insights into the genre.

Remember, the joy of literature lies not just in reading, but in exploring, understanding, and connecting with the stories. So go ahead and enjoy your journey into the world of picaresque fiction. Who knows? You might just stumble upon your next favorite book!

If you're captivated by the world of picaresque fiction and want to explore more about the creative process behind it, check out Philippe's workshop, ' You Are Here: Creative Mapping .' This workshop will provide you with unique insights into the art of storytelling and help you develop your own picaresque narratives.

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Picaresque Novel

A picaresque novel is a genre of prose fiction that depicts a roughish hero who experiences episodic adventures.

This picaresque hero has rough qualities and is usually from a low social class. Despite this, the hero is also appealing. Traditionally male, he has to navigate society with his wits. These novels also usually include satiric and/or comedic elements. Often, novels that include one or only a few of these elements will also be referred to as picaresque novels.  

The first picaresque novel is though to be Lazarillo de Tormes, published in 1554 and perhaps written by Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, although some scholars have expressed doubt in regard to that attribution. The book details a poor boy, Lázaro, who works under seven lay and clerical masters each of whom has something secretive in their personality . The novel is considered to be one of the most widely-read books of all time.  

Explore Picaresque Novel

• 1 Definition and Explanation of a Picaresque Novel
• 2 Elements of a Picaresque Novel 
• 3 Examples of Picaresque Novels 
• 4 Contemporary Picaresque Novels 
• 5 Why Do Writers Write Picaresque Novels?
• 6 Related Literary Terms 
• 7 Other Resources 

Definition and Explanation of a Picaresque Novel

The picaresque novel originated in Spain in the mid-1500s and was incredibly popular throughout Europe for the next two centuries. Despite this, it wasn’t until the 1800s that the name “picaresque novel” was coined. Although this type of literature began centuries ago, it is still influential on novels, films, and television series today. The main character’s story is usually not cohesive. This person will drift from place to place, getting into trouble and trying to survive.  

In the mid-1700s, the picaresque novel declined due to the growth of new realistic novels with more elaborate and intensive plots . At the time, it was considered a lesser form of literature compared to the newer novels being created that were less episodic and conformed instead to a plot that would be more recognizable today. Despite this, readers can find elements of picaresque novels in other works of fiction like the following:  

• The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
• Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain  
• Confessions of Felix Krull by Thomas Mann  
• Dead Souls by Nikolay Gogol  

Elements of a Picaresque Novel  

• Written in the first person .  
• Sometimes an autobiographical account.  
• The main character is of a low social class.  
• The story is told with elements of realism and clear language.  
• Satire is often an important element.  
• The hero holds some immoral views and goes against society’s rules.  
• The plot is loosely defined, held together by related smaller stories (episodic).
• The main character rarely has a real job.  
• Includes adventures on a journey.  

Examples of Picaresque Novels  

Guzmán de alfarache by mateo alemán.

Guzmán de Alfarache is widely considered to be the second picaresque novel ever written. It was published in 1599. The book helped to establish the form in Spanish literature and is usually regarded as a prototype for the genre . It novel purports to be the autobiography of the son of a ruined Genoese moneylender. But, the novel is so filled with outrageous events and characters that many have expressed doubt in regard to its reality.

Unfortunate Traveller; or, The Life of Jacke Wilton by Thomas Nashe

Unfortunate Traveller; or, The Life of Jacke Wilton was the first picaresque novel in England, published in 1594 and set during the reign of Henry VIII. The protagonist , Jack Wilton, travels across Europe, consistently finding himself in trouble. The novel is episodic, jumping from place to place while Jack tells his tale of military encampments, traitors, massacres, and renaissance academia.  

Contemporary Picaresque Novels  

While picaresque novels are less common than they used to be, writers still use the elements of these works of fiction. It’s fairly easy to find a main character who exhibits the traits of the hero of a picaresque novel. It’s also possible to find novels that use an episodic structure. Some of these include:  

Baudolino by Umberto Eco

The story that takes place in the 1300s dung the sacking of Constantinople. A peasant, Baudolino, saves the lives of a historian and a high court official. With this audience , he begins to tell his life story, one that is filled with lies and embellishment. One of the notable features is the difficulty translators have translating the novel into English from Italian. It includes several pages written in a made-up language that combines Italian and Latin, as well as other languages. The novel was published in 2000. Here is an excerpt:  

‘There, Master Niketas,’ Baudolino said, ‘when I was not prey to the temptations of this world, I devoted my nights to imagining other worlds. A bit with the help of wine, and a bit with that of the green honey. There is nothing better than imagining other worlds,’ he said, ‘to forget the painful one we live in. At least so I thought then. I hadn’t yet realized that, imagining other worlds, you end up changing this one.  

Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon

Mason & Dixon is a good example of a novel that contains some, but not all, of the elements of a picaresque novel. In this book, readers follow British surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in Saint Helena, Great Britain, the Dutch Cape Colony, and along the Mason-Dixon Line. Their story unfolds with bits of fiction thrown in to make it more entertaining. The novel was published in 1997. The novel is also considered a frame novel in that it is told from the perceptive of Rev. Wicks Cherrycoke who is attempting to entertain his extended family.  

Why Do Writers Write Picaresque Novels?

Writers choose to use the traditional elements of picaresque novels because of the adventures these characters and forms offer. Within these novels, writers can jump from place to place and time to time without worrying about breaking the continuity of the plot. Readers are also drawn to these kinds of novels due to the excitement that episodic narratives present. One will be unsure what’s going to happen next or where the author is going to take the novel. Additionally, picaresque heroes are also appealing. Their lack of regard for rules and norms make them interesting to write and read about.  

Related Literary Terms  

• Prose : a written and spoken language form that does not make use of a metrical pattern or rhyme scheme .
• Hero: the principal or primary character of a work.
• Anti-Hero : a character who is characterized by contrasting traits. This person has some of the traits of a hero and of a villain .
• Plot : a connected sequence of events that make up a novel, poem, play, film, television show, and other narrative works.

Other Resources  

• Read: History of Spanish Literature
• Watch: Picaresque Novel
• Watch: Major Types of Novels

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The picaresque, translation, and the history of the novel

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• Table Of Contents

What is a novel?

A novel is an invented prose narrative of significant length and complexity that deals imaginatively with human experience. Its roots can be traced back thousands of years, though its origins in English are traditionally placed in the 18th century.

What are the elements of a novel?

A novel can accommodate an almost infinite number of elements. Some of the novel's typical elements, though, are the story or plot, the characters, the setting, the narrative method and point of view, and the scope or dimension.

What are the different types of novels?

The novel has an extensive range of types, among them being: historical, picaresque, sentimental, Gothic, psychological, novel of manners, epistolary, pastoral, roman à clef, antinovel, cult, detective, mystery, thriller, western, fantasy, and proletarian. There is no limit to the number of genres available to the novel.

novel , an invented prose narrative of considerable length and a certain complexity that deals imaginatively with human experience, usually through a connected sequence of events involving a group of persons in a specific setting . Within its broad framework, the genre of the novel has encompassed an extensive range of types and styles: picaresque , epistolary , Gothic , romantic , realist, historical —to name only some of the more important ones.

The novel is a genre of fiction , and fiction may be defined as the art or craft of contriving, through the written word, representations of human life that instruct or divert or both. The various forms that fiction may take are best seen less as a number of separate categories than as a continuum or, more accurately, a cline, with some such brief form as the anecdote at one end of the scale and the longest conceivable novel at the other. When any piece of fiction is long enough to constitute a whole book, as opposed to a mere part of a book, then it may be said to have achieved novelhood. But this state admits of its own quantitative categories, so that a relatively brief novel may be termed a novella (or, if the insubstantiality of the content matches its brevity , a novelette), and a very long novel may overflow the banks of a single volume and become a roman-fleuve , or river novel. Length is very much one of the dimensions of the genre.

The term novel is a truncation of the Italian word novella (from the plural of Latin novellus , a late variant of novus , meaning “new”), so that what is now, in most languages, a diminutive denotes historically the parent form. The novella was a kind of enlarged anecdote like those to be found in the 14th-century Italian classic Boccaccio’s Decameron , each of which exemplifies the etymology well enough. The stories are little new things, novelties, freshly minted diversions, toys; they are not reworkings of known fables or myths , and they are lacking in weight and moral earnestness. It is to be noted that, despite the high example of novelists of the most profound seriousness, such as Tolstoy , Henry James , and Virginia Woolf , the term novel still, in some quarters, carries overtones of lightness and frivolity. And it is possible to descry a tendency to triviality in the form itself. The ode or symphony seems to possess an inner mechanism that protects it from aesthetic or moral corruption, but the novel can descend to shameful commercial depths of sentimentality or pornography . It is the purpose of this section to consider the novel not solely in terms of great art but also as an all-purpose medium catering for all the strata of literacy.

Such early ancient Roman fiction as Petronius ’ Satyricon of the 1st century ad and Lucius Apuleius’ Golden Ass of the 2nd century contain many of the popular elements that distinguish the novel from its nobler born relative the epic poem. In the fictional works, the medium is prose, the events described are unheroic , the settings are streets and taverns, not battlefields and palaces. There is more low fornication than princely combat; the gods do not move the action; the dialogue is homely rather than aristocratic. It was, in fact, out of the need to find—in the period of Roman decline—a literary form that was anti-epic in both substance and language that the first prose fiction of Europe seems to have been conceived. The most memorable character in Petronius is a nouveau riche vulgarian; the hero of Lucius Apuleius is turned into a donkey; nothing less epic can well be imagined.

The medieval chivalric romance (from a popular Latin word, probably Romanice , meaning written in the vernacular , not in traditional Latin) restored a kind of epic view of man—though now as heroic Christian, not heroic pagan. At the same time, it bequeathed its name to the later genre of continental literature , the novel, which is known in French as roman , in Italian as romanzo , etc. (The English term romance, however, carries a pejorative connotation.) But that later genre achieved its first great flowering in Spain at the beginning of the 17th century in an antichivalric comic masterpiece—the Don Quixote of Cervantes, which, on a larger scale than the Satyricon or The Golden Ass , contains many of the elements that have been expected from prose fiction ever since. Novels have heroes, but not in any classical or medieval sense. As for the novelist, he must, in the words of the contemporary British-American W.H. Auden ,

Become the whole of boredom, subject to Vulgar complaints like love, among the Just Be just, among the Filthy filthy too, And in his own weak person, if he can, Must suffer dully all the wrongs of Man.

The novel attempts to assume those burdens of life that have no place in the epic poem and to see man as unheroic, unredeemed, imperfect, even absurd. This is why there is room among its practitioners for writers of hardboiled detective thrillers such as the contemporary American Mickey Spillane or of sentimental melodramas such as the prolific 19th-century English novelist Mrs. Henry Wood , but not for one of the unremitting elevation of outlook of a John Milton .

The novel is propelled through its hundred or thousand pages by a device known as the story or plot. This is frequently conceived by the novelist in very simple terms, a mere nucleus, a jotting on an old envelope: for example, Charles Dickens ’ Christmas Carol (1843) might have been conceived as “a misanthrope is reformed through certain magical visitations on Christmas Eve,” or Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813) as “a young couple destined to be married have first to overcome the barriers of pride and prejudice,” or Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment (1866) as “a young man commits a crime and is slowly pursued in the direction of his punishment.” The detailed working out of the nuclear idea requires much ingenuity, since the plot of one novel is expected to be somewhat different from that of another, and there are very few basic human situations for the novelist to draw upon. The dramatist may take his plot ready-made from fiction or biography—a form of theft sanctioned by Shakespeare—but the novelist has to produce what look like novelties.

The example of Shakespeare is a reminder that the ability to create an interesting plot, or even any plot at all, is not a prerequisite of the imaginative writer’s craft. At the lowest level of fiction, plot need be no more than a string of stock devices for arousing stock responses of concern and excitement in the reader. The reader’s interest may be captured at the outset by the promise of conflicts or mysteries or frustrations that will eventually be resolved, and he will gladly—so strong is his desire to be moved or entertained—suspend criticism of even the most trite modes of resolution. In the least sophisticated fiction, the knots to be untied are stringently physical, and the denouement often comes in a sort of triumphant violence. Serious fiction prefers its plots to be based on psychological situations, and its climaxes come in new states of awareness—chiefly self-knowledge—on the parts of the major characters.

Melodramatic plots, plots dependent on coincidence or improbability, are sometimes found in even the most elevated fiction; E.M. Forster’s Howards End (1910) is an example of a classic British novel with such a plot. But the novelist is always faced with the problem of whether it is more important to represent the formlessness of real life (in which there are no beginnings and no ends and very few simple motives for action) or to construct an artifact as well balanced and economical as a table or chair; since he is an artist, the claims of art, or artifice , frequently prevail.

There are, however, ways of constructing novels in which plot may play a desultory part or no part at all. The traditional picaresque novel —a novel with a rogue as its central character—like Alain Lesage’s Gil Blas (1715) or Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones (1749), depends for movement on a succession of chance incidents. In the works of Virginia Woolf , the consciousness of the characters, bounded by some poetic or symbolic device, sometimes provides all the fictional material. Marcel Proust ’s great roman-fleuve , À la recherche du temps perdu (1913–27; Remembrance of Things Past ), has a metaphysical framework derived from the time theories of the philosopher Henri Bergson , and it moves toward a moment of truth that is intended to be literally a revelation of the nature of reality. Strictly, any scheme will do to hold a novel together—raw action, the hidden syllogism of the mystery story , prolonged solipsist contemplation—so long as the actualities or potentialities of human life are credibly expressed, with a consequent sense of illumination, or some lesser mode of artistic satisfaction, on the part of the reader.

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19 Facts About Tim Walz, Harris’s Pick for Vice President

Mr. Walz, the governor of Minnesota, worked as a high school social studies teacher and football coach, served in the Army National Guard and chooses Diet Mountain Dew over alcohol.

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By Simon J. Levien and Maggie Astor

• Published Aug. 6, 2024 Updated Aug. 9, 2024

Until recently, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota was a virtual unknown outside of the Midwest, even among Democrats. But his stock rose fast in the days after President Biden withdrew from the race, clearing a path for Ms. Harris to replace him and pick Mr. Walz as her No. 2.

Here’s a closer look at the Democrats’ new choice for vice president.

1. He is a (very recent) social media darling . Mr. Walz has enjoyed a groundswell of support online from users commenting on his Midwestern “dad vibes” and appealing ordinariness.

2. He started the whole “weird” thing. It was Mr. Walz who labeled former President Donald J. Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, “weird” on cable television just a couple of weeks ago. The description soon became a Democratic talking point.

3. He named a highway after Prince and signed the bill in purple ink. “I think we can lay to rest that this is the coolest bill signing we’ll ever do,” he said as he put his name on legislation declaring a stretch of Highway 5 the “Prince Rogers Nelson Memorial Highway” after the musician who had lived in Minnesota.

4. He reminds you of your high school history teacher for a reason. Mr. Walz taught high school social studies and geography — first in Alliance, Neb., and then in Mankato, Minn. — before entering politics.

5. He taught in China in 1989 and speaks some Mandarin. He went to China for a year after graduating from college and taught English there through a program affiliated with Harvard University.

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