It was written around 1604 (the exact date of completion is not known) and published in 1626 by a press in Zaragoza (without Quevedo's permission[1]), though it had circulated in manuscript form previous to that.

[2] The only novel written by Quevedo, it is presented in the first person singular and chronicles the adventures of Don Pablos, a buscón or swindler.

[1] C. Brian Morris has written that Quevedo pursues Pablos with a series of "desgracias...encadenadas" ("linked calamities").

[4] James Iffland describes these "linked calamities" as a "torturously up and down, bouncing trajectory which marks Pablos's career from the outset.

"[5] Quevedo satirizes Spanish society, but also attacks Pablos himself, who attempts throughout the novel to achieve a higher station in life and become a gentleman.

[9] Quevedo makes an early references to the effects of syphilis when he puns in his Buscón[10] about a nose entre Roma y Francia meaning both "between Rome and France" and "between dull and eaten by the French illness".

One scholar has argued that the structure Quevedo adopts is not one of randomness and Pablos the focus around whom a series of satirical characters and situations group.

Diego's father, Don Alonso, decides to make both boys wards of a man named Dómine Cabra, in Segovia.

At Alcalá, since Pablos is not a gentleman, he is separated from Don Diego, and is hazed and beaten by some university students.

Pablos then acts out, killing some pigs that did not belong to him, and puts on a party, tricking his landlady into giving him two chickens.

For his part, Don Diego receives a letter from his father stating that he does not wish for his son and Pablos to be friends.

The friends separate, and Pablos decides to meet with a relative and receive an inheritance due to him as a result of his father's death.

They converse on various topics, including King Philip III's recent edict expelling the Moriscos from Valencia.

Pablos takes leave of his uncle, and heads for Madrid, and encounters a man who claims to be a gentleman who has visited the royal court.

The alleged hidalgo gives Pablos lessons on how to behave himself at court, how to lie, how to take advantage of certain situations.

At this house, Pablos encounters various cheats and liars, a cofradía de pícaros y rufianes (confraternity of rogues and ruffians).

Pablos decides to pretend to be rich in order to win over the daughter of the innkeeper, Berenguela de Rebolledo.

Berenguela falls for his lies and tells Pablos to visit her at night by climbing the rooftop and entering her room in this manner.

[16] The father of Juan Pérez de Montalbán (1602-1638) issued a pirated edition of Buscón, which roused an angry controversy.

In 1882 the publication of Daniel Vierge's edition of Buscón brought the technique of photo-reproduction to a high level of finish.