Living in the religious and political turmoil of theReformation, Rabelais treated the great questions of his time in his novels. Rabelais admiredErasmus and like him is considered aChristian humanist. He was critical of medievalscholasticism and lampooned the abuses of powerful princes and popes.
Rabelais is widely known for the first two volumes relating the childhoods of the giantsGargantua and Pantagruel written in the style ofbildungsroman; his later works—theThird Book (which prefigures the philosophical novel) and theFourth Book are considerably more erudite in tone. His literary legacy gave rise to the wordRabelaisian, an adjective meaning "marked by gross robust humor, extravagance of caricature, or bold naturalism."[5]
According to a tradition dating back toRoger de Gaignières (1642–1715), François Rabelais was the son ofseneschal and lawyer Antoine Rabelais[6] and was born at the estate ofLa Devinière inSeuilly (nearChinon),Touraine in modern-dayIndre-et-Loire, where a Rabelais museum can be found today.[7] The exact dates of his birth (c. 1483–1494) and death (1553) are unknown, but most scholars accept his likely birthdate as being 1483.[a] His education was likely typical of the late medieval period: beginning with thetrivium syllabus that included the study of grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic before moving on to thequadrivium, which dealt with arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy.[13]
In 1623, Jacques Bruneau de Tartifume wrote that Rabelais began his life as anovice of theFranciscan Order of Cordeliers, at the Convent of the Cordeliers, nearAngers; however there is no direct evidence to support this theory.[14] By 1520, he was atFontenay-le-Comte inPoitou where he became friends with Pierre Lamy, a fellow Franciscan, and corresponded withGuillaume Budé, who observed that he was already competent in law.[14] FollowingErasmus' commentary on the original Greek version of theGospel of Luke, theSorbonne banned the study of Greek in 1523,[15] believing that it encouraged "personal interpretation" of the New Testament.[16] As a result, both Lamy and Rabelais had their Greek books confiscated. Frustrated by the ban, Rabelais petitionedPope Clement VII (1523–1534) and obtained anindult with the help of BishopGeoffroy d'Estissac [fr], and was able to leave the Franciscans for theBenedictine Order atMaillezais.[15] At the Saint-Pierre-de-Maillezais abbey, he worked as a secretary to the bishop—a well-readprelate appointed byFrancis I—and enjoyed his protection.[17]
Around 1527 he left the monastery without authorization, becoming anapostate untilPope Paul III absolved him of this crime, which carried with it the risk of severe sanctions, in 1536.[18] Until this time,church law forbade him to work as a doctor or surgeon.[19] J. Lesellier surmises that it was during the time he spent in Paris from 1528 to 1530 that two of his three children (François and Junie) were born.[20] After Paris, Rabelais went to theUniversity of Poitiers and then to theUniversity of Montpellier to study medicine. In 1532 he moved toLyon, one of the intellectual centres of the Renaissance, and began working as a doctor at the hospitalHôtel-Dieu de Lyon. During his time in Lyon, he edited Latin works for the printerSebastian Gryphius, and wrote a famous admiring letter to Erasmus to accompany the transmission of a Greek manuscript from the printer. Gryphius published Rabelais' translations and annotations ofHippocrates,Galen andGiovanni Manardo.[21] In 1537 he returned to Montpellier to pay the fees to obtain his licence to practice medicine (April 3) and obtained his doctorate the following month (May 22).[22] Upon his return to Lyon in the summer, he gave an anatomy lesson at Lyon's Hôtel-Dieu using the corpse of a hanged man,[23] whichEtienne Dolet described in hisCarmina.[24] It was through his work and scholarship in the field of medicine that Rabelais gained European fame.[25]
In 1532, under the pseudonymAlcofribas Nasier (ananagram of François Rabelais), he published his first book,Pantagruel King of the Dipsodes, the first of hisGargantua series, primarily to supplement his income at the hospital.[26] The idea of basing an allegory on the lives of giants came to Rabelais from the folklore legend ofles Grandes chroniques du grand et énorme géant Gargantua, which were sold bycolporteurs and at thefairs of Lyon [fr] as popular literature in the form of inexpensive pamphlets.[21] The first edition of an almanac parodying the astrological predictions of the time calledPantagrueline prognostications appeared for the year 1533 from the press of Rabelais' publisher François Juste. It contained the name "Maître Alcofribas" in its full title. The popular almanacs continued irregularly until the final 1542 edition, which was prepared for the "perpetual year". From 1537, they were printed at the end of Juste's editions ofPantagruel.[27] Pantagruelism is an "eat, drink and be merry" philosophy, which led his books into disfavor with the theologians but brought them popular success and the admiration of later critics for their focus on the body. This first book, critical of the existing monastic and educational system, contains the first known occurrence in French of the wordsencyclopédie,caballe,progrès, andutopie, among others.[28][29] The book became popular, along with its 1534prequel, which dealt with the life and exploits of Pantagruel's father Gargantua, and which was more infused with the politics of the day and overtly favorable to the monarchy than the preceding volume had been. The 1534 re-edition ofPantagruel contains many orthographic, grammatical, and typographical innovations, in particular the use of diacritics (accents, apostrophes, anddiaereses), which was then new in French.[30] Mireille Huchon ascribes this innovation in part to the influence ofDante'sDe vulgari eloquentia on French letters.[31]
Rabelais' three trips to Rome were under the protection ofJean du Bellay.
No clear evidence establishes when Jean du Bellay and Rabelais met. Nevertheless, when du Bellay was sent to Rome in January 1534 to convince Pope Clément VII not to excommunicateHenry VIII, he was accompanied by Rabelais, who worked as his secretary and personal physician until his return in April. During his stay, Rabelais found the city fascinating and decided to bring out a new edition ofBartolomeo Marliani'sTopographia antiqua Romae with Sebastien Gryphe in Lyon.[32][33]
Rabelais quietly left the Hôtel Dieu de Lyon on 13 February 1535 after receiving his salary, disappearing until August 1535 as a result of the tumultuousAffair of the Placards, which led Francis I to issue an edict forbidding all printing in France. Only the influence of the du Bellays allowed the printing presses to run again.[34] In May, Jean du Bellay was named cardinal, and still with a diplomatic mission for Francis I, had Rabelais join him in Rome. During this time, Rabelais was also working for Geoffroy d'Estissac's interests and maintained a correspondence with him through diplomatic channels (under royal seal as far as Poitiers). Three letters from Rabelais have survived.[35] On 17 January 1536, Paul III issued apapal brief authorizing Rabelais to join a Benedictine monastery and practice medicine, as long as he refrained from surgery.[36] Jean du Bellay having been named the abbotin commendam of theSaint-Maur Abbey, Rabelais arranged to be assigned there, knowing that the monks were to becomesecular clergy the following year.[20]
In 1540, Rabelais lived for a short time inTurin as part of the household of du Bellay's brother,Guillaume.[37] It was at this time that his two children were legitimized by Paul III, the same year that his third child (Théodule) died in Lyon at the age of two.[20] Rabelais also spent some time lying low, under periodic threat of being condemned ofheresy depending upon the health of his various protectors. In 1543, bothGargantua andPantagruel were condemned by theSorbonne, then a theological college.[38] Only the protection of du Bellay saved Rabelais after the condemnation of his novel by the Sorbonne. In June 1543 Rabelais became aMaster of Requests.[39] Between 1545 and 1547 François Rabelais lived inMetz, then afree imperial city and a republic, to escape the condemnation by theUniversity of Paris. In 1547, he becamecurate ofSaint-Christophe-du-Jambet inMaine and ofMeudon near Paris.
With support from members of the prominentdu Bellay family, Rabelais had received approval fromKing Francis I to continue to publish his collection on 19 September 1545 for six years.[40] However, on 31 December 1546, theTiers Livre joined the Sorbonne's list of banned books.[41] After the king's death in 1547, the academic élite frowned upon Rabelais, and the ParisParlement suspended the sale of The Fourth Book, published in 1552,[42][43] despite Henry II having accorded him the royal privilege. This suspension proved ineffective, for the time being, as the king reiterated his support for the book.[44]
Rabelais resigned from the curacy in January 1553 and died in Paris later that year.[45][b]
Illustration forGargantua and Pantagruel byGustave DoréIllustration forGargantua and Pantagruel by Gustave Doré
Gargantua and Pantagruel relates the adventures of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel. The tales are adventurous and erudite, festive and gross, ecumenical, and rarely—if ever—solemn for long. The first book, chronologically, wasPantagruel: King of the Dipsodes and the Gargantua mentioned in the Prologue refers not to Rabelais' own work but to storybooks that were being sold at the Lyon fairs in the early 1530s.[47] In the first chapter of the earliest book, Pantagruel's lineage is listed back 60 generations to a giant named Chalbroth. The narrator dismisses the skeptics of the time—who would have thought a giant far too large forNoah's Ark—stating that Hurtaly (the giant reigning during the flood and a great fan of soup) simply rode the Ark like a kid on a rocking horse, or like a fat Swiss guy on a cannon.[48]
In the Prologue toGargantua the narrator addresses the: "Most illustrious drinkers, andyou the most precious pox-ridden—for toyou andyou alone are my writings dedicated ..." before turning to Plato'sBanquet.[49] An unprecedentedsyphilis epidemic had raged through Europe for over 30 years when the book was published,[50] even the king of France was reputed to have been infected. Etion was the first giant in Pantagruel's list of ancestors to suffer from the disease.[51]
Although most chapters are humorous, wildly fantastic and frequently absurd, a few relatively serious passages have become famous for expressing humanistic ideals of the time. In particular, the chapters on Gargantua's boyhood and Gargantua's paternal letter to Pantagruel[52]: 192–96 present a quite detailed vision of education.
"Thélème" and "Abbey of Thélème" redirect here. For the new religious movement, seeThelema. For the Thelemic monastery, seeAbbey of Thelema.
In the second novel,Gargantua, M. Alcofribas narrates the Abbey of Thélème, built by the giant Gargantua. It differs markedly from the monastic norm, since it is open to both monks and nuns and has a swimming pool, maid service, and no clocks in sight. Only the good-looking are permitted to enter.[53] The inscription at the gate first specifies who is not welcome: hypocrites, bigots, the pox-ridden, Goths, Magoths, straw-chewing law clerks, usurious grinches, old or officious judges, and burners of heretics.[54] When the members are defined positively, the text becomes more inviting:
Honour, praise, distraction Herein lies subtraction in the tuning up of joy. To healthy bodies so employed Do pass on this reaction: Honour, praise, distraction[55]
Inscription above the Abbey of Thélème (Gustave Doré)
The Thélèmites in the abbey live according to a single rule:
Titlepage of a 1571 edition containing the last three books of Pantagruel:Le Tiers Livre des Faits & Dits Heroïques du Bon Pantagruel (The Third Book of the True and Reputed Heroic Deeds of the Noble Pantagruel)
Published in 1546 under his own name with theprivilège granted by Francis I for the first edition and by Henri II for the 1552 edition,The Third Book was condemned by the Sorbonne, like the previous tomes. In it, Rabelais revisited discussions he had had while working as a secretary to Geoffroy d'Estissac earlier in Fontenay–le–Comte, wherela querelle des femmes had been a lively subject of debate.[56] More recent exchanges withMarguerite de Navarre—possibly about the question of clandestine marriage and theBook of Tobit whose canonical status was being debated at theCouncil of Trent—led Rabelais to dedicate the book to her before she wrote theHeptaméron.[57]
Sybyl of Panzoust
In contrast to the two preceding chronicles, the dialogue between the characters is much more developed than the plot elements in the third book. In particular, the central question of the book, which Panurge and Pantagruel consider from multiple points of view, is an abstract one: whether Panurge should marry or not. Torn between the desire for a wife and the fear of being cuckolded, Panurge engages in divinatory methods, like dream interpretation andbibliomancy. He consults authorities vested with revealed knowledge, like the sibyl of Panzoust or the mute Nazdecabre, profane acquaintances, like the theologian Hippothadée or the philosopher Trouillogan,[58] and even the jesterTriboulet. It is likely that several of the characters refer to real people:Abel Lefranc argues that Hippothadée wasJacques Lefèvre d'Étaples,[59] Rondibilis was the doctorGuillaume Rondelet, theesoteric Her Trippa corresponds toCornelius Agrippa.[60] One of the comic features of the story is the contradictory interpretations Pantagruel and Panurge get embroiled in, the first of which being the paradoxicalencomium of debts in chapter III.[61]The Third Book, deeply indebted toIn Praise of Folly, contains the first-known attestation of the wordparadoxe in French.[62]
The more reflective tone shows the characters' evolution from the earlier tomes. Here Panurge is not as crafty as Pantagruel and is stubborn in his will to turn every sign to his advantage, refusing to listen to advice he had himself sought out. For example, when Her Trippa reads dark omens in his future marriage, Panurge accuses him of the same blind self-love (philautie) from which he seems to suffer. His erudition is more often put to work for pedantry than let to settle into wisdom. By contrast, Pantagruel's speech gains in weightiness by the third book, the exuberance of the young giant having faded.[63]
At the end of theThird Book, the protagonists decide to set sail in search of a discussion with the Oracle of the Divine Bottle. The last chapters are focused on the praise of Pantagruelion, which combines properties of linen and hemp—a plant used in the 16th century for both the hangman's rope and medicinal purposes, being copiously loaded onto the ships.[64] As a naturalist inspired byPliny the Elder andCharles Estienne, the narrator intercedes in the story, first describing the plant in great detail, then waxing lyrical on its various qualities.[65]
Gustave Doré's illustration of the Frozen Words episode (Chapter 56)
Rabelais began work onThe Fourth Book while still in Metz. He dropped off a manuscript containing eleven chapters and ending mid-sentence in Lyon on his way to Rome to work as Cardinal du Bellay's personal physician in 1548. According to Jean Plattard, this publication served two purposes: first, it brought Rabelais some much-needed money; and second, it allowed him to respond to those who considered his work blasphemous. While the prologue denounced slanderers, the following chapters did not raise any polemical issues. Already it contained some of the best-known episodes, including the storm at sea and Panurge's sheep.[66] It was framed as an erratic odyssey,[67] inspired in part by theArgonauts and the news ofJacques Cartier's voyage to Canada,[68] and in part by the imaginary voyage described byLucian inA True Story, which provided Rabelais not only with several anecdotes, but also with a first-person narrator who regularly insisted on theveracity of obviously fantastical elements of the story.[69] The full version appeared in 1552, after Rabelais received a royal privilege on 6 Aug 1550 for the exclusive right to publish his work in French,Tuscan, Greek, and Latin. This, he accomplished with the help of the young Cardinal of Châtillon (Odet de Coligny)—who would later convert to Protestantism[70] and be excommunicated.[71] Rabelais thanks the Cardinal for his help in the prefatory letter signed 28 January 1552 and, for the first time in the Pantagruel series, titled the prologue in his own name rather than using a pseudonym.[44]
The French Renaissance was a time of linguistic contact and debate. The first book of French, rather than Latin, grammar was published in 1530,[72] followed nine years later by the language's first dictionary.[73] Spelling was far less codified. Rabelais, as an educated reader of the day, preferredetymological spelling—preserving clues to the lineage of words—to more phonetic spellings which wash those traces away.
Rabelais' use of Latin, Greek, regional and dialectal terms, creativecalquing,gloss,neologism and mis-translation was the fruit of the printing press having been invented less than a hundred years earlier. A doctor by trade, Rabelais was a prolific reader, who wrote a great deal about bodies and all they excrete or ingest. His fictional works are filled with multilingual, often sexual, puns, absurd creatures, bawdy songs and lists. Words and metaphors from Rabelais abound in modern French and some words have found their way into English, throughThomas Urquhart's unfinished 1693 translation, completed and considerably augmented byPeter Anthony Motteux by 1708. According to Radio-Canada, the novelGargantua permanently added more than 800 words to the French language.[74]
Most scholars today agree that Rabelais wrote from a perspective ofChristian humanism.[75] This has not always been the case.Abel Lefranc, in his 1922 introduction toPantagruel, depicted Rabelais as a militant anti-Christian atheist.[76] On the contrary,M. A. Screech, like Lucien Febvre before him,[77] describes Rabelais as anErasmian.[78] While formally aRoman Catholic, Rabelais was ahumanist, and favoured classical Antiquity over the "barbarous" Middle Ages, believing in the need for reform to return science and arts to their classical blossoming, and theology and the Church to their original Evangelical form as expressed in the Gospels.[79] In particular, he was critical ofmonasticism. Rabelais criticised what he considered to be inauthentic Christian positions by both Catholics and Protestants, and was attacked and portrayed as a threat to religion or even an atheist by both. For example, "at the request of Catholic theologians, all four Pantagrueline chronicles were censured by either theSorbonne, Parlement, or both".[80] On the opposite end of the spectrum,John Calvin saw Rabelais as a representative of the numerous moderate evangelical humanists who, while "critical of contemporary Catholic institutions, doctrines, and conduct", did not go far enough; in addition, Calvin considered Rabelais' apparent mocking tone to be especially dangerous, since it could be easily interpreted as a rejection of the sacred truths themselves.[81]
Timothy Hampton writes that "to a degree unequaled by the case of any other writer from the European Renaissance, the reception of Rabelais's work has involved dispute, critical disagreement, and ... scholarly wrangling ..."[82] In particular, as pointed out by Bruno Braunrot, the traditional view of Rabelais as a humanist has been challenged by earlypost-structuralist analyses denying a single consistent ideological message of his text, and to some extent earlier by Marxist critiques such asMikhail Bakhtin with his emphasis on the subversive folk roots of Rabelais' humour in medieval "carnival" culture. At present, however, "whatever controversy still surrounds Rabelais studies can be found above all in the application of feminist theories to Rabelais criticism", as he is alternately considered a misogynist or a feminist based on different episodes in his works.[83]
An article by Edwin M. Duvall inÉtudes rabelaisiennes 18 (1985)[84] sparked a debate on the prologue ofGargantua in the pages of theRevue d’histoire littéraire de la France[85] as to whether Rabelais intentionally hid higher meanings in his work, to be discovered through erudition and philology, or if instead the polyvalence of symbols was a poetic device meant to resist the reductivegloss.[4][jargon]
Michel Jeanneret [fr] suggests that Panurge's description (in the Papimane Island episode inThe Fourth Book) of the ill-effects of the pages ofdecretals being used as toilet paper, targets, cones, and masks on whatever they touch was due to their misuse as material objects.[86] As the merry crew sail on from the island towards the Divine Bottle, in the subsequent episode, Pantagruel is content simply listening to the thawing words as they rain down on the boat,[87] whereas Jeanneret observes that his companions focus instead on their colourful appearance while they are still frozen, hurrying to gather as many up as they can and offering to sell those they have collected. The pilot describes the words as evidence of a great battle,[88] and the narrator even wants to preserve some of the finest insults in oil.[89] Jeanneret observes that Pantagruel considers the exchange of words to be an act of love rather than a commercial exchange,[88] argues that their artificial preservation is superfluous, and "insinuates that books are petrified tombs, where the signs threaten to stop moving and, left to the devices of lazy readers, get shriveled down into simplistic meanings[,]" implying that "[a]ll writing carries within it the danger of the Decretals."[90]
... a revolutionary who attacked all the past, Scholasticism, the monks; his religion is scarcely more than that of a spiritually minded pagan. Less bold in political matters, he cared little for liberty; his ideal was a tyrant who loves peace. [...] His vocabulary is rich and picturesque, but licentious and filthy.[.....] As a whole it exercises a baneful influence.[91]
Acknowledging both the sordid side of the work and its protean nature,Jean de La Bruyère in 1688 saw beyond that its sublimity:
His book is an enigma, it is whatever you want to say, it is inexplicable, it is a chimera ….. a monstrous assembling of refined and ingenious morality and foul corruption. Either it is bad, sinking far below the worst, to have the charm of the rabble. Or it is good, rising as far as exquisite and excellent, to be perhaps the most delicious of dishes.[92]
Mikhail Bakhtin, a Russian philosopher and critic, derived his concepts of thecarnivalesque andgrotesque body from the world of Rabelais. He points to the historical loss of communal spirit after the Medieval period and speaks of carnival laughter as an "expression of social consciousness".[96]
Aldous Huxley admired Rabelais' work. Writing in 1929, he praised Rabelais, stating "Rabelais loved the bowels whichSwift so malignantly hated. His was the trueamor fati : he accepted reality in its entirety, accepted with gratitude and delight this amazingly improbable world."[97]
George Orwell was not an admirer of Rabelais. Writing in 1940, he called him "an exceptionally perverse, morbid writer, a case forpsychoanalysis".[98]Milan Kundera, in a 2007 article inThe New Yorker, commented on a list of the most notable works of French literature, noting with surprise and indignation that Rabelais was placed behindCharles de Gaulle's war memoirs, and was denied the "aura of a founding figure! Yet in the eyes of nearly every great novelist of our time he is, along withCervantes, the founder of an entire art, the art of the novel".[99] In the satirical musicalThe Music Man byMeredith Willson, the names "Chaucer! Rabelais!Balzac!" are presented by local gossips as evidence that the town librarian "advocates dirty books."[100]
Honoré de Balzac was inspired by the works of Rabelais to writeLes Cent Contes Drolatiques (The Hundred Humorous Tales). Balzac also pays homage to Rabelais by quoting him in more than twenty novels and the short stories ofLa Comédie humaine (The Human Comedy). Michel Brix wrote of Balzac that he "is obviously a son or grandson of Rabelais... He has never hidden his admiration for the author ofGargantua, whom he cites inLe Cousin Pons as "the greatest mind of modern humanity".[103][104] In his story ofZéro, Conte Fantastique published inLa Silhouette on 3 October 1830, Balzac even adopted Rabelais's pseudonym (Alcofribas).[105]
There is a tradition at theUniversity of Montpellier's Faculty of Medicine: no graduating medic can undergo a convocation without taking an oath underRabelais's robe. Further tributes are paid to him in other traditions of the university, such as itsfaluche, a distinctive student headcap which in Montpellier is styled in his honour, with four bands of colour emanating from its centre.[106]
InJean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio's 2008 Nobel Prize lecture, Le Clézio referred to Rabelais as "the greatest writer in the French language".[108]
In France the moment at a restaurant when the waiter presents the bill is still sometimes calledle quart d'heure de Rabelais (The fifteen minutes of Rabelais), in memory of a famous trick Rabelais used to get out of paying a tavern bill.[109]
^In 1905,Abel Lefranc proposed 1494 as his year of birth based on the fact that the fictional giant Gargantua was born on aShrove Tuesday taking place around 3 February.[8] In a letter Rabelais wrote toGuillaume Budé around 1520, he calls himself anadulescens, a Latin term applying to a young man under thirty, but scholars note this may well be a mark of modesty when addressing an elder humanist.[9] Researchers agree more on 1483, due to a copy of his epitaph indicating his death on April 9, 1553 at the age of 70.[10] The discovery of a notarial document relating to Rabelais' estate dated March 14, 1553 has led scholars to surmise that he was already dead by this date.[11] A third hypothesis put forward by Claude Bougreau deduces from a study of the chapter 39 of the Third Book that he was born on May 5, 1489.[12]
^Traditionally, the death date of Rabelais has been given as 9 April 1553[1] but the discovery of a notarial document (concerning his brother) places Rabelais' death before 14 March 1553.[46]
^"those books he brings me the works of Master Francois somebody supposed to be a priest about a child born out of her ear because her bumgut fell out a nice word for any priest".
^abDemonet, Marie-Luce (2022). "Rabelais moinillon à la Baumette. Retour sur une hypothèse". In Garnier, Isabelle; La Charité, Claude (eds.).Narrations fabuleuses. Mélanges en l'honneur de Mireille Huchon (in French). Paris: Classiques Garnier. pp. 25–44.doi:10.48611/isbn.978-2-406-12714-7.p.0025.Qui sait si Tartifume, bon connaisseur du Gargantua, n'est pas parti du roman pour imaginer ce noviciat?
^Lesellier, J. (1936). "L'absolution de Rabelais en cour de Rome ses circonstances. Ses résultats".Humanisme et Renaissance (in French).3 (3):237–270.JSTOR20673008.Les moines en rupture de ban se comptaient alors par milliers et, d'une façon générale, l'opinion ne se montrait nullement sévère à leur égard
^Huchon, Mireille (2003). "Pantagruelistes et mercuriens lyonnais". In Defaux, Gérard; Colombat, Bernard (eds.).Lyon et l'illustration de la langue française à la Renaissance (in French). ENS Éditions. p. 405.ISBN978-2-84788-032-8.
^Huchon 2011, p. 24: "il est maintenant établi que Rabelais mourut avant le 14 mars 1553, comme le prouve la pièce notariale [...] qui instaure comme légataire [...] son frère Jamet, marchand à Chinon."
^Davis, Natalie Zemon (1998). "Beyond Babel". In Davis, Natalie Zemon; Hampton (eds.).Rabelais and His Critics. Occasional Papers Series, University of California Press.
^Duwal, Edwin M. (2004)."Humanism". In Chesney, Elizabeth A. (ed.).The Rabelais Encyclopedia. Greenwood Publishing. pp. 120–121.ISBN978-0-313-31034-8 – via Google Books.
^Chesney, Elizabeth A., ed. (2004). "Evangelism".The Rabelais Encyclopedia. Greenwood Publishing. p. 73.ISBN978-0-313-31034-8.
^Hampton, Timothy (1998). "Language and Identities". In Davis, Natalie Zemon; Hampton (eds.).Rabelais and His Critics. Occasional Papers Series, University of California Press.
^Braunrot, Bruno (2004)."Critical Theory". In Chesney, Elizabeth A. (ed.).The Rabelais Encyclopedia. Greenwood Publishing. pp. 43–46.ISBN978-0-313-31034-8 – via Google Books.
^Duval, Edwin M. (1985). "Interpretation and the 'Doctrine Absconce' of Rabelais's Prologue to Gargantua".Études Rabelaisiennes.18:1–17.
^Jeanneret 1975, p. 20, "Mais le livre, insinue Pantagruel, est un tombeau pétrifié, où les signes menacent de s'immobiliser et, abandonnés à des lecteurs indolents, de se recroqueviller en significations simplistes. Tout écrit porte en soi le péril des Décrétales"
^Bertrin, Georges (1911)."François Rabelais".The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved25 November 2018 – via newadvent.org.
^Huxley, Aldous (1929).Do What You Will: Essays by Aldous Huxley. London: Chatto & Windus. p. 81.
^Orwell, George (1968). "Review ofLandfall by Nevil Shute andNailcruncher by Albert Cohen".The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell.2. London: Secker & Warburg.
Dupèbe, Jean (1985). "La date de la mort de Rabelais".Études rabelaisiennes (in French). Vol. XVIII. Droz. pp. 175–176.
Lazard, Madeleine (2002).Rabelais (in French). Paris: Hachette Littératures.ISBN2012791077.
Lefranc, Abel (1908). "Conjectures sur la date de naissance de Rabelais".Revue des Études Rabelaisiennes (in French). Vol. 6. Paris: Honoré Champion. pp. 265–270.
Bakhtin, Mikhail (1993).Rabelais and His World. Translated by Hélène Iswolsky. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Boulenger, Jacques (1978). "Introduction: Vie de Rabelais". In Boulenger, Jacques; Scheler, Lucien (eds.).Œuvres complètes Œuvres complètes. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade (in Middle French). Vol. 15 (Revised edition with commentary by Lucien Scheler ed.). Paris: Gallimard.OCLC5725863.
Screech, Michael A. (1992).Rabelais. Tel (in French). Translated by Marie-Anne de Kisch. Paris: Gallimard.OCLC377631583.
Complete works
Rabelais, François (1994). Huchon, Mireille; Moreau, François (eds.).Rabelais Oeuvres complètes. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade (in French). Vol. 15. Paris: Gallimard.ISBN978-2-07-011340-8.OCLC31599267.Presented and annotated by François Moreau
Bakhtin, Mihail; Laine, Tapani; Nieminen, Paula; Salo, Erkki (2002).François Rabelais: keskiajan ja renessanssin nauru (in Finnish) (3rd ed.). Helsinki: Like.ISBN978-952-471-083-1.
Dixon, J. E. G.; Dawson, John L. (1992).Concordance des Oeuvres de François Rabelais (in French). Geneva: Librairie Droz.ISBN978-952-471-083-1.
Febvre, Lucien (1982).The Problem of Unbelief in the Sixteenth Century: The Religion of Rabelais. Translated by Beatrice Gottlieb. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.ISBN978-0-674-70825-9.
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