Picaresque Novel
The emergence of the picaresque novel in Spain as 'novela picaresque' and in Germany as 'schelmen roman' and in England as ' the novel roguery' forms one of the most fascinating chapters in the history of the novel. Cervantes introduced the picaresque novel in his Don Quixote . Henry Fielding in England proved his mastery in writing the sub-genre of usually satiric prose fiction in which he depicts in realistic often humourous detail of the adventures of a roguish hero of low social degree- living by his wits in a corrupt society. Joseph Andrews , The Life of Jonathan Wild the Great and The History of Tom Jones were the picaresque novel in English written in imitation of Carvantes. Other novels with elements of the picaresque include the The French Candide and later English The Luck of Barry Lyndon. Some modern novelists who used picaresque novels were Gogol's Dead Souls , Rudyard Kipling's Kim . Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleburry Finn was conciously written as a picaresque novel. In all these picaresque novels the picaro, the adventurous man belonging to the lower middle class rises to great power and ennoblement as a reward for his noble nature exemplified by compassion, honesty and good humour . The picaro goes through the stages of innocence and corruption . There is the stylistic blend of the serio-comic undermeaning the prevalent separation of styles . Smollett's Rodrick Random like Fielding's Tom Jones is a picaro. Both are essentially good-hearted and lovable and exchange criminality for adventurous pranks along the line of Gil Blas.
