This is the English edition of Rabelais's great comic cycle about a family of giants. It follows the huge-appetited Gargantua, his son Pantagruel, and their companions, among them the clever rogue Panurge. The story moves through births, schooling, wars, quarrels and a long sea voyage in search of an oracle's answer to a question about marriage.
Beneath the feasting, wordplay and absurd episodes lies sharp satire of pedantic teachers, quarrelsome rulers and corrupt clergy, along with a hopeful humanist vision of learning and freedom. It remains a landmark of European comedy.
Quotes
Do what thou wilt, because men that are free, well born, well bred, and conversant in honest companies, have naturally an instinct and spur that prompteth them unto virtuous actions.
knowledge without conscience is but the ruin of the soul,
I drink no more than a sponge.
Appetite comes with eating, says Angeston. But the thirst goes away with drinking.