picaresque novel: Quick Facts

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Novel: Introduction

Key People

Engraving of Miguel de Cervantes, shown with a mustache and beard, wearing a ruffled collar and cloak, based on works by Gregorio Ferro and Fernando Selma.

Miguel de Cervantes

Spanish writer

Henry Fielding, frontispiece to Fielding's Works (1st ed., 1762), engraving by James Basire after a drawing by William Hogarth

Henry Fielding

English author

Daniel Defoe, engraving by M. Van der Gucht, after a portrait by J. Taverner, first half of the 18th century.

Daniel Defoe

English author

Smollett, detail of an oil painting by an unknown artist, about 1770; in the National Portrait Gallery, London

Tobias Smollett

Scottish novelist

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Gaius Petronius Arbiter

Roman author

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Thomas Nashe

English writer

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Hans Jacob Christoph von Grimmelshausen

German novelist

Spanish poet Quevedo y Villegas

Francisco Gómez de Quevedo y Villegas

Spanish writer

Lesage, engraving by J.-B. Guelard, 18th century

Alain-René Lesage

French author

Jorge Amado

Jorge Amado

Brazilian author

Stanislas de Boufflers, lithograph by F.-S. Delpech

Stanislas-Jean, chevalier de Boufflers

French author

Alemán, Mateo: The Life of Guzman d' Alfarache

Mateo Alemán

Spanish author

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José Rubén Romero

Mexican author

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Vicente Espinel

Spanish writer

José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi.

José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi

Mexican editor and author

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Wu Jingzi

Chinese author

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Alonso de Castillo Solorzano

Spanish writer

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Agustín de Rojas Villandrando

Spanish writer

Young woman with glasses reading a book, student

Famous Novels, Last Lines Quiz

Nobel prize-winning American author, Pearl S. Buck, at her home, Green Hills Farm, near Perkasie, Pennsylvania, 1962. (Pearl Buck)

Novels and Novelists Quiz