Reading two Spanish Picaresque Novels the very first Picaresque Lazarillo de Tormes and another called the Swindler. Lazarillo published in 1554 is a Reading two Spanish Picaresque Novels the very first Picaresque Lazarillo de Tormes and another called the Swindler. Lazarillo published in 1554 is a savage satire of the Catholic Church and The Swindler (El Buscon) published 1626 is more a comic romp. Even though Lazarillo is so very old the satire is still stinging or it would be if I was a Catholic and was obviously written by one of the lowly and oppressed, while El Buscon was actually written by someone who thought they were part of the establishment and wanted to teach the lowly their place. The Picaresque novels are about a poor boy in rags making his way through life in spite of tremendous hurdles. In Lazarillo he becomes a servant to blind beggars who recite religious texts for money, priests who are stingy and selfish, sellers of religious texts who trick people into buying them and even an impoverished aristocrat. On the contrary El Buscon in the swindler tries to get an education and get on in the world but so far as I haven’t finished it, his tutors nearly starves him to death the other students literarily shit all over him. They shit in his bed and they cover him in spit, as I said it is a comedy but a comedy based in fact as the Picaresque novel is a realistic genre. I find them both very interesting and sad, it’s sad how humans treat each other....more
So I read a book and it wasn't funny at all and wasn't meant to be: All Quiet on the Western Front.
Basically it's about a whole lot of boys from the So I read a book and it wasn't funny at all and wasn't meant to be: All Quiet on the Western Front.
Basically it's about a whole lot of boys from the same school who are goaded by their teacher to go off to war. As we have come to understand it is hell out there and one really feels for them. The interesting thing for me is that they were Germans – the enemy but as one reads one doesn’t want them to get hurt. Being British and born when I was born the Germans were always the bad guys and I’ve been to Germany and liked the people but reading a war novel even an antiwar novel by a German is quite something. The simple style and the reality and the truthfulness of the writing certainly makes it well worth reading. So it is not a funny book but it is about the crazyness of mankind.
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