Widely believed to be the first of the sixteenth/seventeenth century picaresque novels, Lazarillo de Tormes is the story of an ingenious rascal who continually outwits his various foster figures and corrupt masters. Of unknown authorship, the book was banned by the Spanish crown but survived due to its popularity in the surrounding European nations, and spawned a new form of literature, the picaresque novel, that remained popular for nearly a century.