Pablo de Segovia, the Spanish Sharper
Publisher: Standard Ebooks
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Subjects: Swindlers and swindling -- Fiction; Spain -- Fiction; Picaresque literature, Spanish
Description: <p><a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/francisco-de-quevedo">Francisco de Quevedo</a> holds the status of a man-of-letters in the same pantheon as <a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/miguel-de-cervantes-saavedra">Cervantes</a>; but despite that, <i>Pablo de Segovia</i> is his only novel. Quevedo had circulated the manuscript privately for several years before it was published in 1626 without his permission. The novel is partly a satire of contemporary Spanish life, and a caricature of the various social strata Pablo encounters and emulates.</p>
			<p>Pablo himself is a low-born person who aspires to become a gentleman, but despite his best efforts he repeatedly fails and is eventually forced to become a “sharper,” or rogue. His failures give Quevedo an avenue to expound on his belief that attempting to break past your social class can only lead to disorder; and that despite one’s best efforts, bettering oneself is largely impossible. Pablo’s stumbling from misfortune to misfortune is a farce that helped cement Quevedo’s reputation as a literary giant.</p>