The Unfortunate Traveller is a picaresque novel, which means that the hero of the story is a rogue living by his wits, usually from the lower classes of society. The best known example of this is Monsieur Thernadiere, the crafty hostelry owner in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. The protagonist of this novel is Jack Wilton, and it was both written and published in 1594, although it was set much earlier, during the reign of Henry VIII of England.
The book tells the story of Jack Wilton as he gallivants through Europe. The narrative makes sudden jumps from country to country, political situation to political situation, and of the tales of daring and adventure that focus on Wilton and his ability to get out of every difficult situation that he encounters using his guile and streetwise experiences. Whatever happens, Wilton seems to come out on top.
The book was published in four parts, and is the best known novel penned by Nashe, who was better known during his time as a pamphleteer, the writer and publisher of cheap, unbound manuscripts distributed widely to the general population. Nashe was also known as a satirist
Nashe began his literary career as a student at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he gained a bachelor's degree, but left under a cloud before he could go on to complete his masters. There was speculation at the time that he was expelled from the school after participating in a rather raucous theatrical production , but Nashe later claimed that he left because his father had passed away the year before and his heart was no longer in his studies. Nashe's literary career was quite respected; he co-wrote a play with Ben Jonson for which both men found themselves at the center of a controversy that saw Johnson thrown in jail and Johnson hiding away on the east coast
Nashe passed away in 1601, at the young age of thirty three.
