Lazarillo de Tormes is a short but extraordinary work, published anonymously in 1554. It is structured as a letter in which the narrator, Lázaro -a lowly town crier in Toledo-- responds to a request made by an unnamed Vuestra Merced (Your Honour). Lázaro has to explain in detail to Vuestra Merced, seemingly his social superior, a certain "caso" ("matter"), the nature of which becomes clear only at the end of the novel/letter.The book begins with a brief Prologue which is brilliantly ambiguous: 1. It is written by an ostensibly uneducated town crier but alludes to several classical authors and is full of rhetorical devices; 2. Lázaro wants the letter to come to the attention of many readers and be praised, but it is addressed to one individual; 3. he is a mere town crier occupying a very lowly job but rejects money as a reward, craving fame instead! 4. his letter opens promising great things ("cosas tan señaladas") but later he calls it a trifle written in a crude style (nonada que en este grosero estilo escribo"); 5. He affects modesty (no más santo que mis vecinos") but is proud of his achievement; 6. He is asked to write only about the "matter" but takes it upon himself to give a full account of his life up to that point.