SUMMARY:
Lázaro is a character who was born on the banks of the river Tormes and raised in a marginal world of crime; his father steals and dies for his crimes and his mother, a widow, joins a black man who also steals to support the son he has with her, and who, like his father, dies. At the age of eight, his mother entrusted him as a servant to a blind man with whom he left Salamanca, and it was from then on that he was forced to fend for himself. This blind beggar was very greedy, and since he had no oomer, he resorts to all sorts of traps to eat and drink more than he allowed; He even covered a hole in the wine cask with wax, so that when the heat of the fire melted, he could drink the liquid that fell there. But when the blind man found out, he brutally punished him. Until one night when it was raining, fed up with his greed, Lazaro deceived his master and made him jump thinking it was a river and he hit a pillar. After abandoning the blind man, Lázaro bumps into a clergyman in Maqueda who offers him work to help give mass; but this one also treated him very badly. So one day, he began to hide the key to the showcase where he kept the bread in his mouth, and he ate it, blaming the mice. But the day his master found out, he kicked him out of his house. His luck did not change him with the following masters: the third was a ruined squire who deceived him by pretending to have power and possessions, with whom he suffered even more hunger. Until one day the squire himself abandoned him; When he saw that he had too many debts, he looked for an excuse to get money and left Lazaro. The squire's neighbors recommended him a friar from La Merced, whom they called relative; But when he saw that he was very strict and sweet, and although he did not starve with him, Lázaro left him and continued trying his luck, this time with a bulldog. The buldero was a joke salesman who turned out to be a scammer, so Lázaro was only with him for four months. He continued begging around Toledo until he went to work as a chaplain's constable, and in this way began to approach the good life. After four years, he had saved enough to support himself and dress decently, so Lázaro left his job as a servant, becoming a town crier in Toledo. When he obtained cargo, the archpriest of San Salvador proposed to him with one of his servants, which Lázaro gladly accepted. But when he seems to have found his stability both financially and in love, bad gossip arises that condemn his wife as the archpriest's lover and himself for pampering him. Finally, everything settled down when Lazarus exchanged with the archpriest and his wife, denying the rumors and considering himself successful (both in money and in love).
