Novel
The Itching Parrot
El Periquillo Sarniento
Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi · 1816
Synopsis
Pedro Sarmiento, whom his schoolmates nicknamed the Periquillo Sarniento, writes down the life he has led for the instruction of his children. Born in Mexico City into a middle-class family, spoiled, he seeks to earn money without working and tries every means to do so. From school to convent, from trade to knavery, he passes through every layer of the society of the waning New Spain and everywhere meets people from his past; each experience gives him the material for a lesson on the abuses of his time.
Context
The author prints and sells the book in weekly chapters throughout 1816, like his periodicals, and mixes in long commentaries on the moral and political state of the country. Censorship halts publication: the last sixteen chapters do not appear until 1830-1831, after his death and ten years after independence. In 1942, Katherine Anne Porter gives an abridged English translation, which keeps the picaresque narrative and leaves out the digressions; a complete translation appears in 2004 under the title The Mangy Parrot.
Who it is for
A long novel in episodes, weighed down by moral digressions; it is best read in pieces. No published French translation has been found.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the first novel written and published in Latin America, and still its author's most important work.
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