The Reformed Picaro and His Narrative: A Study of the Autobiographical Accounts of Lucius Apuleius, Simplicius Simplicissimus, Lazarillo de Tormes, Guzman de Alfarache, and Moll Flanders

The reformed picaro's narrative situation – an older moral or religious convert recounting the roguish adventuresof his earlier life– presents a problem which only the most skilled and conscientious of these picaresque narrators can begin to handle successfully. The moral reform or religious conversion undergone by the picaro is in most cases a spontaneous occurrence sparked by misfortune, despair, punishment, or the threat of death. Hence, no organic development, such as found in e.g. David Copperfield's narrative, links the narrated and narrating “I's” of the picaresque autobiography, creating a cleft which most of these little‐educated but verbally adroit narrators are unable to bridge successfully. For nine and one‐half books, Lucius Apuleius provides pure entertainment ranging from the lyrical to the bawdy, then tags on a fervent conversion in the final book in an apparent effort to avoid charges of total frivolity in his work. Lazarillo de Tormes' morality rings strident and hollow as he tries to defend his obviously disreputable status of lowly town‐crier and cuckold. Moll Flanders'various attempts at reform fall quick victim to “necessity” and natural weakness until she gains a large measure of prosperity in the Nc:w World; morality thus appears much too closely linked with material well‐being to be fully genuine. Guzman de Alfarache's similarly materialistic concerns, plus his past instances of hypocritical piety, make his promised reform (the incomplete work ends with this promise at the conclusion ofPart Two) less than totally convincing. Simplicius Simplicissimus comes the closest to presenting a convincing mixture of rowdy fun and sincere morality; but even his conversion, since it involves withdrawal from a sinful world rather than actual conquest of natural weakness and sin‐fulness, reveals for the modem reader the heart of the former picaro still beating in the new convert and compromising at least slightly the moral value of the latter's narrative.