Written by an international group of scholars, this edited collection provides an overview of the Spanish picaresque from its origins in tales of lowborn adventurers to its importance for the modern novel, along with consideration of the debates that the picaresque has inspired. The term picaresque describes a specific set of early modern Spanish narratives relating the life story of a lowborn adventurer in a realist, ironic, and often humorous manner. The protagonist, the picaro or picara (rascal), seeks upward mobility in a resolutely hierarchical society determined to prevent his - or her - ascent, and both are rich targets of satire. Spanish picaros inspired Anglo-French rogues including Gil Blas and Tom Jones and paved the way for the modern novel. Written by an international group of scholars, this edited collection provides an overview of the Spanish picaresque novel from its origins to the present day, along with a treatment of the debates that the picaresque has inspired. After introductory chapters on the picaresque genre and the origin of the phenomenon, the book analyses canonical texts and their role in the picaresque spectrum. Further chapters then turn to critical approaches to the genre and manifestations of the picaresque in Hispanic America, France, England, and modern Spain. Overall, the book affords readers a broad sense of the range of this rich tradition and an in-depth view of the field and its major texts.

Remake of the 1967 Russian horror film based on the 1835 short story by Nikolai Gogol. When British cartographer and scientist Jonathan Green (Jason Flemyng) travels to the wilds of the Far East in the early eighteenth century, he stumbles upon a remote village nestled in an impenetrable forest. There, he is told stories of a terrifying creature with a gaze that can pierce a man's soul, a creature known only as 'Viy'. Despite repeated warnings, the pragmatic Green sets off towards the boarded-up local church in an attempt to disprove the stories. What he finds there confounds science and imagination, revealing a horrific truth about the village and its people.