Gil Blas

Gil Blas, or L'Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane, is a French picaresque novel written by Alain-René Lesage. Its original publication date is unknown, but falls somewhere between 1715 and 1735. It tells the adventures of the title character over a lifetime as he travels from place to place, his fortunes rising and falling. He works hard and learns to navigate between social classes, with each person he encounters serving as an archetype of their profession. Lesage was a French novelist and playwright, known for works such as The Devil Upon Two Sticks and Turcaret.

Gil Blas is born to a retired soldier and a chambermaid in Oviedo, Spain. Gil receives an education from his uncle, Gil Perez, who is a canon. Perez tutors Gil in the classics and logic. When Gil comes of age, the family agrees it is time for him to seek his fortune, so they send him to Salamanca to become a tutor himself. Perez gives Gil forty pistoles and a mule to ride on. However, Gil heads off in the wrong direction, and meets an unsavory innkeeper who persuades him to sell his mule and join a caravan.

The caravan leader makes up a story that he has been robbed by one of its members, and threatens them all with arrest. His real motivation is scare them all off, so he can seduce one of their wives in peace. Gil is frightened away when the police arrive. He heads into the woods, where he crosses paths with a band of robbers. They force him to join them. He botches a robbery, but successfully captures a beautiful lady, Doña Mencia, then escapes from the robbers with her. He lands in hot water when he is discovered wearing stolen clothes, but a grateful Doña Mencia comes to his aid and gives him a large sum of money in thanks.



Gil uses the money to buy new clothes and hire a valet, Ambrosio, and two traveling mules. However, he is soon robbed of his wealth by a man named Don Rafaël. An old friend from school, Fabricio, runs into Gil and helps him find a job as a footman to a priest. Gil works there until the priest dies, and finds a different job with a doctor. The doctor teaches Gil his methods for curing sick patients: giving them water, and bleeding them. Unfortunately, the doctor’s patients all die. Gil briefly takes over the practice, and his patients die as well.

Following this incident, Gil decides to try another profession, and heads to Madrid along with a barber. There, he becomes the valet to a series of employers, and learns city manners. He hops from position to position, falling in love, helping his employer’s daughter win the hand of a student, losing a duel, and other such adventures.

Gil flees Madrid after losing a duel over a woman’s affections. On the road, he saves a man named Don Alfonso from the Inquisition. They seek shelter in a hermit’s cave only to find that the hermit is Don Rafaël and his companion is Ambrosio. All four are hiding from the law and decide to join together to survive. They save an old man and his daughter captured by robbers; the daughter turns out to be Don Alfonso’s fiancée, Serafina. Unfortunately, Don Alfonso has killed her brother in a duel, and Serafina refuses to marry her brother’s murderer, so she leaves him.



Gil helps the others carry off a complicated swindle, but afterwards decides to leave, uncomfortable with this immorality. He travels with Don Alfonso to the latter’s estate, where he reconciles with Serafina. The two marry after all.

Gil serves at the estate until circumstances force him to leave; Serafina’s nurse falls in love with him and he does not reciprocate. Her constant attempts to gain his affections make it impossible for him to continue. He departs for Grenada, where an Archbishop hires him to make clean copies of the final draft of his sermons. Gil does well until he criticizes the Archbishop’s writing, and is dismissed.

In time, Gil returns to Madrid, helps a veteran collect his pension, and encounters his friend Fabricio again. Now Fabricio is trying to become a playwright. Gil serves another series of jobs, eventually working his way up in the employ of a Duke who is impressed with his talents. Gil hires another valet, Scipion, but turns to unethical actions like selling favors and obtaining a special appointment for Don Alfonso. He also arranges a courtesan for the Crown Prince to teach him “the art of love.” Soon, however, the King finds out about this incident and throws Gil in prison.



There, Gil repents his old ways and hopes to retire to the country when he is released. The King eventually repents, and Gil is released. He runs into Don Alfonso, who grants him a small Valencia estate in exchange for the appointment he arranged. Gil and Scipion make plans to retire there, but first Gil wishes to visit his elderly parents.

Gil speaks to his father and uncle on their deathbeds. Gil’s mother refuses to move to Valencia with him, but he leaves her money to live on. Gil reaches his new estate in Valencia and settles in to country living. He marries a farmer’s daughter, Antonia, but is heartbroken when she dies in childbirth. The Crown Prince ascends to the throne and Gil comes out of retirement as a way to combat his grief.

The new king, still grateful to Gil, recommends him to Duke Olivares, a former rival of the duke Gil worked for, who is now disgraced. Gil becomes Olivares’s speech-writer and trusted aide. He nurtures Fabricio’s career, sends Scipion to America, and arranges a marriage for Olivares’s daughter. Don Rafaël and Ambrosio are captured by the Inquisition. Gil runs into an actress who may be his daughter, the product of a love affair in his earlier days.



Eventually, Olivares is ousted from government by a rival faction. He retires to his own country estate and brings Gil with him. He dies, leaving much of his fortune to Gil. Gil and Scipion retire for the second time. He finds another woman to marry, and his daughter also finds a worthy husband. The book ends with their double wedding.

The novel has much in common with Lesage’s earlier play, Turcaret. Both navigate different social classes and occupations with pointed commentary. The work is famous and frequently alluded to by other authors, from Edgar Allan Poe to Charles Dickens.