FORMAT: Guest Book

SIZE

Width: 225mm (8?")

Height: 180mm (7")

Depth: 15mm (½")

INTERIOR: Unlined

PAGE COUNT: 144 Pages

CLOSURE: No Closure

COLOUR: Purple

GSM (PAPER WEIGHT): 120

COVER: Hardcover

EDGE PRINTING: Yes

BINDING TYPE: Smyth Sewn

INTERIOR PAPER: Custom-Designed Laid Paper

RIBBON MARKERS: 1

MORE FEATURES

100% recycled binder boards

Decorative printed cover paper

FSC-certified text paper

Threaded stitching and glue, as needed

Cloth headbands

Acid-free sustainable forest paper

Don Quixote, Samuel Pickwick, Sebastian Dangerfield, Huckleberry Finn... the archetype of the rascally yet endearing rogue is one with which we are all familiar, though we may not know its origins. And perhaps no character encapsulates what it means to be an appealing anti-hero more than Gil Blas, the star of Alain-Rene Lesage’s picaresque novel by the same name.

Picaresque novels blend elements of comedy and satire in their depictions of a lovable charlatan. Published in the early 1700s, Gil Blas has been described by Edgar Allan Poe as being among “the finest narratives in the world” and was a key item on Thomas Jefferson’s reading list. And though it has come to define the genre, Lesage’s work itself was influenced by the story Lazarillo de Tormes, a novella published anonymously in 1554. This Spanish work is what gives us the term “picaresque,” stemming from picaresca, meaning “rascal,” and it established the key features of a “picaro” character – a lower-class person surviving by their own wits in what is seen as a corrupt or unjust society.