Word of the Day - Picaresque

[debodun]

Picaresque (adjective) - a style of fiction dealing with the adventures of a rough and dishonest but appealing hero.

Some examples of picaresque novels are Charles Dickens's "The Pickwick Papers", Nikolay Gogol's "Dead Souls", and Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn".

 

[Kaila]

It is notable and interesting, how closely this word, picaresque,

resembles the much more common word, picturesque, which has a very different meaning and tone.
(Picaresque might seem to be simply a typo, when sometimes, it is not one.)

Picaresque, the term for these types of stories, is an intriguing category of literature, that obviously captivates many readers, and has continued to, over a great many decades and longer.

 

[Lavinia]

The Spanish word for rogue is 'picaro', and this is where the term 'picaresque' has originated.