| Summary: | This article explores the short novel Amar sólo por vencer by María de Zayas (included in her book Desengaños amorosos, 1647), through the literary topic of the unequal wedding: a rogue, pretending to be a nobleman, seduces a noblewoman with the promise of marriage. In this piece, Zayas recreates a typical picaresque episode within a protofeminist discourse, depicting a young woman as a victim of a familiar vengeance. This picaresque influence in Zayas’ writing is probably due to her contact with Alonso de Castillo Solórzano, whose picaresque narratives Zayas is apparently recalling in several passages of Amar sólo por vencer. As a result, this is an original “picaresque” story crafted by María de Zayas.
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