En los dos mil años de la literatura occidental no se había escrito otro libro como ese que al mediar el Quinientos llegaba a las manos de los españoles (y pronto de todos los  europeos), porque posiblemente ninguno había tratado nunca antes a un personaje de la pobre categoría de Lázaro con una atención tan amplia y tan extremada, tan respetuosa con el punto de vista que un pregonero en sus condiciones podría haber tenido de sí mismo, y tan centrada en la materialidad y en las minucias cotidianas de la existencia.[…] Nos consta que no se conocía ninguna otra narración en prosa con las singulares características, con el insólito y ambiguo modo de ser del . Porque el tal libro ¿era historia o era ficción? […] De ahí que al verdadero autor no se le pasara por la cabeza revelarnos su nombre, que sigue ocultándosenos, y es de temer que sin remedio. Porque, en rigor, el no es tanto un libro anónimo, de pluma ignorada, como más propiamente un libro apócrifo, atribuido a un falso autor, el propio protagonista, Lázaro de Tormes. Francisco Rico An annonymous book originally called "La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus fortunas y adversidades", whose oldest known edition was published in 1554. It is set in the 16th century and tells the adventures of Lázaro de Tormes, from his birth until he gets married. It is an ironic and harsh portrait of society at the time. The text is written as a very long letter and the events are told in first person - it is the protagonist who is speaking. Because of its moralising and pessimistic tone, and because of the realistic elements, as well as the structure and first person narrative, "Lazarillo de Tormes" is unanimously considered to be the precursor of picaresque novel, a genre that was widely developed throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. An important work of Spain’s Golden Age of literature, “Lazarillo de Tormes” portrays the clever ploys of a young Salamancan boy determined to outsmart his long string of masters. This Spanish novella was first published, during the Spanish Inquisition, by an author who wished to remain anonymous due to the work’s heretical content. Young Lazarillo is an improbable hero of his time, for he comes from a poor and multiracial family who desperately apprentice him to a blind beggar after committing a crime. Lazarillo soon proves himself to be resourceful and resistant to the corrupt clergymen he must serve. Banned for heresy due to its highly critical portrayal of both the aristocracy and Catholic Church of the 16th century, this work came to provide a model for Cervantes and many future authors, like Twain, who explored the picaresque genre. Though originally published at great risk to the author, “Lazarillo de Tormes” is today an entertaining story of a boy who ingenuously survives his own childhood and makes something of himself despite the corruption that he must continually overcome.