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CHOICE Review

These nine intelligent, well-argued essays on Lazarillo de Tormes (1554)--an anonymously written work generally acknowledged as the first picaresque narrative and posited by some scholars as the first modern novel--focus on subjects ranging from the internal structure of the text to its representation of the politics of social status to the implications of its early circulation. Several contributors focus on intertextuality, the explicit or implicit presence of texts and textual traditions. For example, in their essay Anthony Zahareas and Ismene Kansi read Lazarillo as a secular adaption of Homer's Odyssey. Emphasizing rhetorical strategies, inspiration, ties to historical reality, treatment of female characters, and the motif of hunger, these essays, taken as a whole, illustrate the range of critical approaches to Lazarillo, from strict formalism to cultural studies, over the last decades. Although the influence of Jose Antonio Maravall, George Shipley, and Anne Cruz, to name but three specialists of many, is apparent on every page, Coll-Tellechea (Univ. of Massachusetts, Boston) and McDaniel (Indiana Univ. of Pennsylvania) present the essays as a "reframing" of Lazarillo studies and a response to criticism that has become "stagnant." One might argue that the book is a welcome addition--rather than a challenge--to its predecessors. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. E. H. Friedman Vanderbilt University