The picaresque novel is a genre of prose fiction originating from Spain, defined by the adventures of a roguish but appealing hero, typically of low social class, who uses their wits to navigate a corrupt society. These narratives are usually told in the first person, are episodic in nature with little character development, and often employ plain language, comedy, and satire.
The genre is widely credited to the anonymous Spanish novel Lazarillo de Tormes (1554), though ancient works like Apuleius' The Golden Ass served as significant predecessors. It quickly flourished across Europe, with other seminal Spanish examples including Mateo Alemán's Guzmán de Alfarache (1599–1604), which contemporaries called "The Book of the Pícaro." The term "picaresque," derived from the Spanish word pícaro (meaning 'rogue' or 'rascal'), was coined in 1810 and continues to influence modern literature, despite ongoing scholarly debates about its precise definition.