(adj) involving clever rogues or adventurers especially as in a type of fiction, Example:picaresque novels; waifs of the picaresque tradition; a picaresque hero
a. [ F., fr. Sp. picaro rogue. ] Applied to that class of literature in which the principal personage is the Spanish picaro, meaning a rascal, a knave, a rogue, an adventurer. [ 1913 Webster ]