Yareah Magazine

“Rinconete and Cortadillo” was written by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Alcalá de Henares, 1547 – Madrid, 1616).
“Rinconete and Cortadillo” (Pedro del Rincón and Diego Cortado) were two “pícaros”, two teenagers who had to run away from their homes because their families mistreated them. However, at the beginning, when they meet each other, both of them pretend to be aristocrats, following the prototype of “pícaros” of that century.

In Sevilla, they enter a brotherhood of young robbers and prostitutes, the boss is Monipodio. This brotherhood is perfectly hierarchized and it's the ironical representation of the ancient Spanish society: Cervantes is denouncing and laughing of the stupid social rules of the 16th century. For example, “don't talk with women called Maria on Saturdays”) one of the Monipodio’s rules said. Definitely, this brotherhood is an exaggerated representation of the religious Sevilla of that time and its Catholic love for the Virgin Maria.
Cervantes speaks in third person, knowing everything about the characters but without evaluating their behavior. It will be the reader who will evaluate the character’s actions and this is really modern, the same as the general structure of the book: lineal but with flashbacks when the protagonists tell us events of their past.
The book has not got chapters. However, along the novel, we can see that it is organized in three parts: meeting of Rinconete and Cortadillo; their life in the brotherhood; Rinconete’s reflections and thoughts. This final part is very short.
“Rinconete and Cortadillo” is full of irony. It helps us to think about the world, about the relationships among people, about the general hypocrisy, a hypocrisy which belongs to every moment and society and that is the reason why the novel turns universal, the same as the other writings of the universal Cervantes: “La Galatea”, “Don Quixote”, “Novelas Ejemplares”, “Los Trabajos de Pérsiles y Segismunda”, “Viaje al Parnaso” (poetry), “La Numancia” (play).

Read more:

http://books.google.es/books?id=zGPriX2ZN-gC&dq=rinconete+and+cortadillo+cervantes&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=6uX7rHXGcL&sig=ANqrHvvxJ3iJiw-4yjTbEFRnyEI&hl=en&ei=wKBHSo3CKeaRjAeIoMBi&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1