In early modern Europe, life writing became one of the most fascinating genres because it embodies the complexities of the social, cultural, intellectual, and philosophical movements of that time. Life writing can take many different forms: chronicles, exemplary biographies of single individuals, collective biographies, Sumas, spiritual mémoires, autobiographies of different kinds. The motivations behind each of these forms are varied, always changing, and never superfluous. Faith Harden, in this monograph, concentrates on military autobiographical life writing, a very particular form that exploded during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This study takes a novel approach by analyzing a selection of texts through the lens of the concept of honor, “a system of value that was experienced differently at the intersections of race, class, gender, profession, and religious affiliation” (149).

In warfare and martial life, the sixteenth century saw a military revolution that enhanced the professionalization of soldiers and led to the proliferation of a military science; the production of knowledge about the matter of war was abundant, and it was read not only by upper echelons of the military but also by rank-and-file soldiers. Leaving behind the culture of mercenaries, so harshly criticized by Niccolò Machiavelli, a new idea of participation and service to the nation emerged, together with a renewed consideration of professional soldiers. However, the material conditions of militaries were very unstable and many soldiers struggled with poverty. Amid this context, military autobiographies constitute one of the most fascinating forms and strategies of textual self-defense and self-fashioning.

Harden explores the ways in which the idea of honor operates in the life writing of Spanish soldiers in early modern Spain. For her analysis, she establishes two forms of writings. The first one, self-novelization, covers those authors who relate their experiences, mostly misadventures, in hopes of receiving a “symbolic economy of fame” (111). A second group she coins as “petitionary,” a form of military life writing represented by those authors who wrote their deeds to petition for a (material) reward or privilege.

Self-novelization works are analyzed in chapters 1 and 3. In chapter 1, Harden explores the Breve suma de la vida de Diego García de Paredes (ca. 1533), a key and influential work and model of conduct that many military writers would derive inspiration from. Chapter 3 deals with Jerónimo de Pasamonte's Vida y trabajos (ca. 1603), whose narrative of his misfortunes targets the achievement of a spiritual honor and a religious authority. In both works, as Harden argues, “the historical person of the author is transformed into an extraordinary literary persona.” Chapter 2 covers the petitionary form of military life writing in Diego Suárez Corvín's autobiographical sketches (ca. 1592–1624) and Domingo de Toral y Valdés's Relación de la vida (ca. 1635). In these two cases, authors conceived of themselves as “producer[s] of knowledge and the text as a compendium of useful information”; their military action is conceived as an honorable service that is meant to be rewarded. The last chapter, entitled “Playing the Pícaro,” establishes interesting connections between the picaresque novel and soldiers’ autobiographies. Harden focuses on two additional authors: Miguel de Castro and Catalina de Erauso, the so-called Monja Alférez or Lieutenant Nun. Both writers are able to “play the pícaro and produce themselves as cleverly insubordinate characters for whom the reclamation of honour can still be plausible,” although their exploits include violence, deception, and erotic intrigue (112).

In her pursuit of coloring the concept of honor and taking up Roland Greene's methodology, Harden rearranges her categorization of military life writing through sharp analysis, by picking “semantically fluid terms” that correspond to ideological and sociological inflection points. She connects the different texts and conceptions of honor with three words: merced, sufrir, and pícaro. While authors such as Diego de Paredes look for mercedes (rewards), others rely on their capacity of suffering having an intellectual intention (Toral y Valdés, Suárez) or a spiritual one (Pasamonte); still others (Casto and Erauso) use the tropes of the pícaros’ lives to praise their honor.

All six works examined by Harden are well contextualized within the authors’ historical and literary milieus. Harden brings canonical works, such as El Quixote, Lazarillo de Tormes, or Estabillo González, into the conversation and establishes thoughtful connections. Arms and Letters offers indispensable insight into our understanding of the literary, cultural, and intellectual context and content of early modern Spanish life writing.