Friday word: Picaresque

[med_cat]

A Spanish-origin word this time :)
~~~

pi·ca·resque, adjective \ˌpi-kə-ˈresk, ˌpē-\

: of or relating to rogues or rascals; also : of, relating to, suggesting, or being a type of fiction dealing with the episodic adventures of a usually roguish protagonist

Examples:

Cloister and Hearth is a picaresque historical novel. (This novel was one of Arthur Conan Doyle's favourite books.)

...As wages of our picaresque,
Bag lunches bolted at my desk
Must stand as fealty to you
For each expensive rendezvous....(From Peter De Vries' "To His Importunate Mistress"; the entire poem can be read in this previous post to this comm.)

Etymology:
Spanish picaresco, from pícaro, rogue, knave, villain, loafer

First Known Use: 1810

Comments

[insaneladybug.livejournal.com]

LOL. Awesome! I had no idea there was a word for such stories.

[med_cat]

'Tis my pleasure, glad to have provided a word you hadn't heard of before ;)

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

I had no idea The Cloister and the Hearth was picaresque. Summaries of Victorian literature make it sound like dull moralizing.

---L.

[med_cat]

...Well, that's what turned up on Google search, and judging from the summary, the protagonist IS rather a rogue...

Conan Doyle liked the female protagonist, Margaret; I went to look up the novel after reading abt that; never heard of that novel before and it doesn't really sound like one I'd enjoy ;)

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

I've meet Reade as someone who wrote potboilers that tended to stray from Victorian norms, including stronger than typical heroines. It's also very lonnnnng, so I was planning to try one of his other, more adventuresome novels.

---L.

[med_cat]

Ah yes I see :)

...that would explain why Doyle liked the female heroine :)