Historia de la vida del Buscón, llamado Don Pablos
(1604/1626) – Francisco de Quevedo
Sobre el autor y la
obra
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Quevedo
o
Spain,
1580-1645
o
Was mainly famous as a poet in the style of
conceptismo (in contrast to Góngora’s culteranismo)
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This was his only novel
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Picaresque genre, but more critical of the
pícaro (in comparison with Lazarillo de
Tormes)
Comps ideas to consider
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The picaresque genre
Basic summary
Story starts out with
Pablos’ genealogy (like in Lazarillo)
– he has humble, poor origins. He is sent to school but drops out and is then
sent to another school, where he is beaten due to his social class. He starts
acting out, and eventually receives word of his father’s death, and goes to
claim his inheritance. In this journey, he encounters various people (several
conversations). He eventually meets some supposed “gentlemen” and claims to
wish to become a gentleman himself, but is thrown into prison. He is released
and changes his name and pretends to be rich, but is thrown in jail again. He gets
out (changing his name again) and becomes a beggar, and then later works as a
script writer. Later he becomes a thief. Finally he decides to go to the Indies
to see if he has better luck, but doesn’t.
More detailed summary (Wikipedia)
Book One
Pablos is first introduced as a child. His father, Clemente
Pablo, is a barber and a thief. His mother, Aldonza, is a prostitute and a witch.
It is implied that she is a Morisco; Pablos writes: Sospechábase en el
pueblo que no era cristiana vieja ("It was whispered in town that she
was not an old Christian [i.e. a "new Christian," a recent convert to
Christianity].") Pablos' brother, also a thief, was flogged to death in
prison. Pablos wishes to go to school, and his parents agree to let him go. At
school, he befriends a boy named Don Diego Coronel, but Pablos suffers various
setbacks there. Pablos decides to neither return to school nor home, and
remains as the friend and companion of Don Diego, who also decides to leave
school. Diego’s father, Don Alonso, decides to make both boys wards of a man
named Dómine Cabra, in Segovia. The two boys suffer from hunger at the hands of
Cabra. When another boy dies of starvation, Alonso removes both boys from the
school and sends them off to Alcalá to study. On their way there, they stop at
an inn, where Pablos is mocked and hazed by a group of students. At Alcalá,
since Pablos is not a gentleman, he is separated from Don Diego, and is hazed
and beaten by some university students. During the night, he is beaten again by
four students who shared a room with him. Pablos then acts out, killing some
pigs that did not belong to him, and puts on a party, tricking his landlady
into giving him two chickens. He also robs some sweets from a local merchant
and some swords from the rector and a justice of the peace. His friends laugh
at his antics.
Pablos then receives a letter that his father has been
hanged and his mother imprisoned. For his part, Don Diego receives a letter
from his father stating that he does not wish for his son and Pablos to be
friends. The friends separate, and Pablos decides to meet with a relative and
receive an inheritance due to him as a result of his father’s death.
Book Two
On his way to Segovia to claim his inheritance, Pablos
encounters a slightly mad engineer. They converse on various topics, including
King Philip III's recent edict expelling the Moriscos from Valencia. Many
villages were totally abandoned as a result, and local aristocrats were
complaining that the new laborers were fewer in number and were not as familiar
with local agricultural techniques. They stay at an inn, and Pablos encounters
a teacher there, who attempts to give him a lesson. Pablos and the engineer
part ways. The next day, Pablos comes across an old cleric, also mad, and they
eat dinner at an inn. They also part ways. Pablos continues on his journey,
coming across a soldier with terrible wounds, as well as a hermit. They reach Cercedilla.
They play cards and the hermit tricks Pablos and the soldiers, thus getting all
of the winnings. Pablos parts ways with the three, and meets up with his uncle,
Alonso Ramplón, in Segovia. There is a great dinner at his uncle’s house, and
everyone gets drunk, except for Pablos. While everyone is sleeping off the
drink, Pablos goes for a walk. When he returns, he kicks out all of the
partygoers except for his uncle, with whom he discusses his inheritance. Pablos
takes leave of his uncle, and heads for Madrid, and encounters a man who claims
to be a gentleman who has visited the royal court. The alleged hidalgo
gives Pablos lessons on how to behave himself at court, how to lie, how to take
advantage of certain situations.
Book Three
Pablos and the alleged gentleman arrive at the house of Don
Toribio Rodríguez Vallejo Gómez de Ampuerto y Jordán, who also claims to be a
gentleman. At this house, Pablos encounters various cheats and liars, a cofradía
de pícaros y rufianes (confraternity of rogues and ruffians). Pablos, still
wishing to become a gentleman, is dressed in rags and patched-up clothing. He
is subsequently arrested and thrown into prison, along with his new-found
friends. Pablos befriends the jailer, who decides not to flog him. The jailer
eventually liberates Pablos and dines with him; Pablos claims that he is a
relative of the jailer’s wife. His friends, however, are flogged and exiled to Seville.
Pablos changes his name to “Ramiro de Guzmán,” and goes to
an inn. Pablos decides to pretend to be rich in order to win over the daughter
of the innkeeper, Berenguela de Rebolledo. Berenguela falls for his lies and
tells Pablos to visit her at night by climbing the rooftop and entering her
room in this manner. Unfortunately, the roof collapses. The innkeepers wake up,
and, infuriated, beat him and have him thrown into jail.
They whip him in jail, until he is liberated by two men, one
from Portugal, the other from Catalonia, who also had their sights set on
Berenguela. The two men try to arrange a marriage between Berenguela and
Pablos, but Pablos encounters some rich, elderly women. Renaming himself again
as “Don Felipe Tristán,” Pablos arrives at the villa where the two women
reside. One of these old women, however, has three nieces, all single, and
wants Pablos to marry one of them. He falls for Doña Ana, the most beautiful of
the three. As they picnic, a gentleman approaches, who is none other than Don
Diego. He spots Pablos without being noticed himself. Pablos plays cards with
all the ladies, and wins a lot of money. The next day Don Diego confronts him,
and has his old friend beaten. He is arrested by a justice of the peace and
taken to an inn. Pablos remains there, until he takes to the road again with a
new career: that of a beggar. He meets another beggar, Valcázar, who teaches
him in this new profession. Pablos earns some money and buys new clothes, a
sword, and a hat, and takes off to Toledo, where no one will recognize him.
Pablos meets up and joins a group of comedic actors, and Pablos works as a
script writer for them. He takes on another new name, “Alonso el Cruel.” He
writes some poetry as well. The leader of this band of actors, however, is
apprehended by the police. The group is dispersed and Pablos abandons this
profession and falls in love with a nun. He goes to mass frequently to see her;
the nun ignores him. He travels to Seville, where he joins a group of thieves.
The thieves go out to drink and eat together, and become intoxicated. When they
return home, they are stopped by the police, who kill one of the thieves. The
others disperse and are not caught, but Pablos and the other thieves decide to
try their luck in the Indies, to see if their luck will change. Pablos tells
us, at the end of the novel, that things in the Americas went even worse for
him there
Themes/ideas
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Pablos sets out in life with two aims: to learn
virtue and to become a caballero (gentleman). He fails miserably in
both.
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Picaresque genre
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Autobiographical / first person narration
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Protagonist of low social class
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Episodic (sort of)
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Character is always a pícaro, no development
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Satire – mocks Pablos, the pícaro (unlike Lazarillo, which satirizes society)
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His behavior does cross over into the criminal
(unlike Lazarillo)
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Social advance/ascent
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propounds the notion that children of parents
without honor will never be able to achieve honor themselves
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Pablos ends up even worse than he was, is never
able to advance socially
