Pantagruel - Hardcover Book

Back Cover Text (From the Promotional Bulletin)

François Rabelais (1494-1553): The great writer of the Renaissance, master of parody and satire, monk, physician and advisor to the royal court. He entered a monastery at an early age and learned Greek there. He joined the Benedictine order. He left the priesthood in 1527, enrolled in medical school, and then started practicing medicine. While he was a physician, he published Pantagruel, which he wrote under the pseudonym Alcofribas Nasier, and then Gargantua. After his official duty as a physician was terminated, he spent ten years traveling and practicing medicine wherever he wanted. During this period, he published his third book, which tells about the adventures of Pantagruel. This was followed by a fourth and fifth book, published posthumously. Rabelais, who turned medieval thought and life upside down with parody and satire in his epic works and always defended humanism with laughter, is, in Chateaubriand's words, "the creator of French literature." The second leg of this great author's five-book oeuvre, Pantagruel, full name: The Adventures and Terrible Heroes of Pantagruel, the Son of the Great Giant Gargantua, King of the Dipsodes, finally takes its place next to Gargantua with a brand new translation and illustrations by Gustave Doré.