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First published in 1554, Lazarillo de Tormes was destined to beget a whole new genre, the so-called picaresque novel. Its great popularity may be attributed largely to its daring autobiographical form, which allows the reader to observe the magnificent, conquering Spain of Charles the Fifth through the inner consciousness of a humble figure called Lazarus, whose name, perhaps, comes from the poor leper mentioned in the Gospels. The Lazarillo is the first literary expression of a feeling basic to the very existence of the Spanish people, especially since the fifteenth century: they were what they were, and at the same time many were not pleased with their way of existing. This feeling of anguish is the "tragic sense of life," in the words of Unamuno