Best Female Picaro
"The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders" is a novel by Daniel Defoe first published in 1722. Written as a first-person picaresque narrative, the book recounts the life of its titular protagonist from her birth in Newgate Prison through a succession of marriages, financial struggles...
La lozana andaluza, also known as Retrato de la lozana andaluza, is a Spanish-language dialogued novel by Francisco Delicado, published in Venice in 1528. It follows Aldonza, an Andalusian woman, and her companion Rampín in the streets and underworld of early-sixteenth-century Rome, combining picare...
"The Adventures of China Iron" is a 2017 novel by Argentine writer Gabriela Cabezón Cámara that reimagines the classic 19th-century gaucho epic "Martín Fierro." The story shifts the perspective to the titular protagonist, Martín Fierro's abandoned wife, transforming the traditional masculine poem in...
Here's to You, Jesusa! is the English title of Elena Poniatowska's novel Hasta no verte Jesús mío, first published in Mexico in 1969. The book draws on extensive interviews with Josefina Bórquez to construct the fictionalized first-person testimony of Jesusa Palancares, a working-class woman whose l...
Fanny Hill, also published as Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, is an English novel by John Cleland first published in 1748 and 1749. Written as a fictional memoir, it follows Fanny as she enters adult sexual life and moves through relationships and sex work, using the picaresque form and elaborate er...
The Sacred Book of the Werewolf is a 2004 Russian novel by Victor Pelevin. The story is narrated by A Hu-Li, a centuries-old, shape-shifting werefox who works as a prostitute in contemporary Moscow. Blending magical realism with satire, the narrative explores themes of post-Soviet capitalism, oil we...
The Daughter of Celestina is a Spanish picaresque novel written by Alonso Jerónimo de Salas Barbadillo, first published in 1612. The narrative centers on Elena, a cunning and criminal protagonist, making it an early example of female-centered picaresque fiction. Drawing inspiration from Fernando de...
Written by Alonso de Castillo Solórzano in 1642, La garduña de Sevilla is a notable Spanish picaresque novel featuring a cunning female protagonist navigating urban society.
La niña de los embustes is a 1634 Spanish picaresque novel by Alonso de Castillo Solórzano notable for its female protagonist and its vivid depiction of Sevillian society.
La Pícara Justina is a 1605 Spanish picaresque novel attributed to Francisco López de Úbeda and notable for centering an independent female rogue.
Teresa de Manzanares is a 1632 Spanish picaresque novel by Juan Pérez de Montalbán that follows the life and deceptive tricks of its titular female rogue in 17th-century Spain.
Published anonymously in 1662, this English criminal biography recounts the exploits of Mary Frith, the London thief and celebrity called Moll Cutpurse.
