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Author photo. Portrait de François Rabelais (1483–1559); anonyme; 17e siècle; huile sur toile; 0,48 H, 0,40 L; Musée national du château et des Trianons, Versailles

Portrait de François Rabelais (1483–1559); anonyme; 17e siècle; huile sur toile; 0,48 H, 0,40 L; Musée national du château et des Trianons, Versailles

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One of the leading humanist writers of the French Renaissance, Rabelais was at first a Franciscan and then a Benedictine monk, a celebrated physician and professor of anatomy, and later cure of Meudon. The works of Rabelais are filled with life to the overflowing, hence the term "Rabelaisian." His principal protagonists, Gargantua and his son, Pantagruel, are appropriately giants, not only in size, but also in spirit and action. The five books of their adventures are separate works, containing, in different measure, adventures, discussions, farcical scenes, jokes, games, satires, philosophical commentaries, and anything else that a worldly, learned man of genius such as Rabelais could pour into his work. His style is innovative and idiosyncratic, marked by humorous neologisms made up from the learned languages, Greek and Latin, side by side with the most earthy, humble, and rough words of the street and barnyard. His Gargantua, published in 1534, satirizes the traditional education of Parisian theologians and, in the Abbe de Theleme episode, recommends a free, hedonistic society of handsome young men and women in contrast to the restrictive life of monasticism. The gigantic scope of Rabelais's work also reflects the Renaissance thirst for encyclopedic knowledge. (Bowker Author Biography) — biography from Gargantua and Pantagruel… (more)
Disambiguation Notice

Alcofribas Nasier is a pseudonym for Rabelais

(fre)Alcofribas Nasier is a pseudonym and anagram for François Rabelais

Gargantua and Pantagruel (Author) 4,820 copies, 48 reviews
Gargantua 598 copies, 9 reviews
Pantagruel 414 copies, 10 reviews
The Third Book of Pantagruel 136 copies, 1 review
Gargantua {Extraits} 60 copies, 1 review
The Fifth Book of Pantagruel 47 copies, 1 review
Oeuvres complètes (Author) 41 copies
The Wise Fool 15 copies, 5 reviews
Rabelais 5 copies
Gargantua 1 copy
Gargântua 1 copy
Tome I 1 copy
Tome II 1 copy
Works 1 copy

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Short biography
French Renaissance writer, doctor and humanist. François Rabelais studied law and joined the Franciscan order of monks. He then studied medicine and became a practicing physician, but his true genius was as a storyteller. He's considered an eminent, avant-garde author of fantasy and satire, with his comic masterpiece Gargantua and Pantagruel being published in several volumes between 1532 and 1564. Since his day, "Rabelaisian" has entered the English vocabulary as a byword for works marked by bawdy or outrageous humor, caricatures, and bold truthfulness.
Disambiguation notice
Alcofribas Nasier is a pseudonym for Rabelais

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