François Rabelais

François Rabelais was a French writer, physician and humanist, born in 1494 at Seuilly in the Kingdom of France, and he died on 9 April 1553. He is said to have begun his career in the Church, as a monk, before turning to medicine and the study of ancient Greek and Latin learning. These interests shaped his writing, which mixes scholarship with open delight in the body, food, drink and talk.

He is remembered above all for his comic cycle about the giants Pantagruel and Gargantua, written under a pseudonym and often condemned by religious authorities of his day. Behind the broad humour lie serious concerns about education, war, justice and the abuse of power. His inventive language and boisterous imagination influenced many later writers, and the word Rabelaisian still describes earthy, exuberant comedy.