Gargantua & Pantagruel

In English-speaking countries, Rabelias has been seen as a forerunner of Swift, whose buffoonery masks incisive criticism of contemporary politics, religion and society. Sir Thomas Urquhart’s 1635 translation does full justice to Rabelias’ inventiveness and comic genius, and to the patchwork of style, tone and register which for a time alienated French readers conditioned by principles of clarity, precision and decorum. No such prejudice need deter the modern reader. Though of Renaissance France, these romances are extraordinarily modern in their parody of epic and chivalric tales, their blend of reality and surreal fantasy, their experimentation with fictional form, and their exuberant delight in the power of language to do more than tell a story. Gargantua and Pantagruel are not just bywords for comedy of disproportion and bawdiness. They are a challenge to received taste and a new departure in prose fiction.

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