First edition of this important Spanish picaresque novel, written in the form of an autobiography of a rogue, though perhaps a work of fiction, an influential Spanish baroque piece of literature of the 17thcentury.
The story is set during the Thirty Years War, where the protagonist acts a servant to distinguished employers, under whose employment he visited Europe, witnessed significant events, served a spy in France, and served Cardinal Ferdinand of Spain in his French campaigns. It is different from any other of the picaresque novels in that the protagonist, here, far from being constantly battered (unemployed for example) he is under constant employment and narrates his life story by himself:
“[E]n todo momento este superpicaro… tiene un oficio permanente, o casi, y con esto se supera a todo el genero picaresco, cuyos protagonistas eran azotados a todo lo largo de sus vidas por el vendaval del desempleo, la falta de oficio permanente, y basta repensar el contenido de los siete tractados del Lazarillo para no tener que abundar en el tema… Los dos generos (la literatura bufonesca y la de picaro) se acoquinan ante tal desplante de la imaginación creadora, si la Vida i hechos es ficción, o ante las extremosidades de una vida, si lo narrado es historia.”
The problematic regarding the fictional -or not- origin of the novel is unresolved “La autobiografia de este bufon ha desatado una tormentilla de truenos y relámpagos críticos que se ha centrado sobre el hecho de si nos hallamos ante una vida novelesca (ficción) o ante una vida circunstancial y genuina (historia). Defensor a ultranza de la historicidad de la Vida i hechos lo fue en su momento Willis Knapp Jones y lo ha sido hoy en dia el lamentado R. O. Jones, de gran superioridad critica sobre el otro Jones. En el extremo opuesto hay que colocar la tajante actitud de Marcel Bataillon” (Juan Bautista Avalle-Arce)
“In spite of the fact that Estebanillo Gonzalez, the story of the most widely travelled of all the ´rogues´ is considered a picaresque novel, it differs in one important respect from the general conception of that genre. Tehre is no doubt that the work contains a certain amount of fiction, particularly in so far as many of Estebanillo´s own deeds and escapades are concerned, but the historical references to the places he visited, the persons he met and the events he observed or in which he took part are so numerous and in almost every instance so accurate, that the term ´novel´ becomes hardly applicable and that of ´autobiography´ imposes itself.” (Arthur S. Bates).
The book was translated into English in 1707 by Captain John Stevens under the general title The Spanish Libertines… Estevanillo Gonzales, the most arch and comical of scoundrels; in his opinion, the Estevenillo surpassed the Lazarillo de Tormes and Guzman de Alfarache.
Illustration:
The book contains a full-page engraved portrait of the author, and an engraved coat of arms of the dedicatee Octavio Picolomini de Aragon, is found facing the dedication.
Provenance: Duran Subastas; offered with a Spanish export license.
Palau 84153 “Primera edición”.
Avalle-Arce, Juan Bautista. “El Nacimiento de Estebanillo González.” Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica, vol. 34, no. 2, El Colegio De Mexico, 1985, pp. 529–37, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40298681.
Bates, Arthur S. “Historical Characters in Estebanillo González.” Hispanic Review, vol. 8, no. 1, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1940, pp. 63–66, https://doi.org/10.2307/470304.
