what does picaresque convey to a Native ?
In my peregrination to your sense of English vocabulary, I ferreted out interesting usages of picaresque which I would appreciate your help, as a Native, in honing my understanding.
although by dictionary picaresque means relating to a fiction dealing with the adventures of a rough and dishonest but appealing hero, I figured out it can convey 4 different things or a combination of them as follows.
1. a story
2. an adventure
3. dishonesty
4. being attractive
To make sure, I need your understanding or translation of picaresque as a Native in each of the following examples.
1- With all of these undercurrents and subterranean connections, “Sudden Death” might seem Pynchonesque but for its tone, which is mischievous and picaresque rather than paranoid and foreboding.
New York Times Feb 14, 2016
2- Liverpool tend to carry a sense of place with them through these picaresque European campaigns.
The Guardian May 18, 2016
and there are five more examples3- The originator was an Irishman named John Field whose picaresque life story contrasted sharply with his lyrical and dreamy creations.
Washington Post Jul 7, 2016
4- After a long apprenticeship, an American picaresque that encompassed a flop in California, he was signed by Columbia Records.
Economist Sep 27, 2016
5- Some critics accused him of recycling his picaresque plots and ideas, which at times seemed to verge on the nihilistic.
Washington Post Sep 14, 2017
6- Two lithographs from 1827 by European visitors to Rio, capital of the new empire of Brazil, depict picaresque street scenes crowded with traders, monks, hawkers, and slaves.
New York Times Apr 18, 2018
7- There’s only a little time left to invest in a ticket to Bruce Norris’s picaresque about free-market capitalism.
New York Times Apr 5, 2018