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As a companion volume to Pantagruel , this new edition of Gargantua continues Rabelais’ acclaimed fantasy of a mythical family of giants. Gargantua introduces Pantagruel’s father—another wondrous giant. As he tells Gargantua’s life story from his birth and education to his later life, Rabelais uses the events of the giant’s life to parody medieval and classical learning, mock traditional ecclesiastical authority, and proffer his own thoughts on humanism and society. Marked with the same warm humor, obsession with food, and scatological wit of Pantagruel , Gargantua is a further striking burlesque on Rabelais’ contemporaries and a glorious outpouring of Renaissance plenitude.

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1534

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About the author

François Rabelais

1,210 books465 followers
French humanist François Rabelais wrote satirical attacks, most notably Pantagruel (1532) and Gargantua (1534), on medieval scholasticism and superstition.

People historically regarded this major Renaissance doctor of fantasy, satire, the grotesque, bawdy jokes, and songs. Considered of the great of world literature, he created modern Europe. He also published under the names Alcofribas Nasier and Séraphin Calobarsy.

François Rabelais était un des grand écrivains de la Renaissance française, médecin et humaniste. Il a toujours été considéré comme un écrivain de fantaisie, de satire, de grotesque et à la fois de blagues et de chansons de débauche. Rabelais est considéré comme l'un des grands écrivains de la littérature mondiale et parmi les créateurs de l'écriture européenne moderne. Il a également publié sous les noms Alcofribas Nasier et Séraphin Calobarsy.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 247 reviews
Profile Image for Fionnuala.
907 reviews
Read
August 15, 2023
They lived and laughed and loved and left
James Joyce

When I glance through the reviews in my goodreads updates, the words ‘tears’ and ‘moving’ sometimes jump out at me, and my first impulse is to look away quickly.
But the next impulse is to look again to see what it is that has caused the reviewer to be quite so ‘moved’ that they have actually shed ‘tears’. Sometimes the reviewer explains what has moved them in a way that allows me to gain an insight into the powerful writing that has produced such an intense reaction. Other times, I’m at a complete loss. I do not even begin to comprehend what has produced all the tears, and then I feel a huge gulf between me and the book itself, certain that my reaction would be rather one of laughter, that I would not be able to take such tear-inducing scenarios seriously and therefore ought not to read the book.

Il vaut mieux traiter du rire que des larmes,
Parce que rire est le propre de l’homme

It's better to write about laughter than tears,
For laughter makes men human - François Rabelais

It's true that I’m more drawn to authors who keep their tongues firmly in their cheeks when it comes to the tragic and the shocking, rather than to those who favour describing the shocking and the tragic in shockingly tragic language. Several writers I admire are masters at wrapping the tragic in comic garb. When I paused just now to think of names to back up that statement, I came up with a curious group: Laurence Sterne, for example, and Jonathan Swift. Flann O’Brien and Samuel Beckett.

What is curious about the group is that they are all Irish or at least born in Ireland. It makes me wonder if there isn’t something special in Hibernian air, some earthy element that floats about and encourages a focus on the contradictory, the irreverent, the ribald, the downright scatalogical. And that thought brings me by an odious ficafist of literary recirculation back to James Joyce with whom I began this review and whom I always considered the most wonderfully irreverent and scatological of the above group.
That was the case until I met Rabelais.
What Joyce can do easily, Rabelais can do with one fist tied behind his back, his thumb protruding between his fingers*. He’s a gargantuan figure in this group of literary giants, and for me, he’ll belong in their company from here on in.

Of course the big obstacle to grouping him with Joyce & company is that he’s not Irish and never had the opportunity to inhale the island’s earthy element, at least as far as anyone knows, though I personally wouldn’t be surprised to hear he was fathered by an Irish monk who travelled through the Loire Valley on his way to Compostela, and who spent a night or two in a hostelry in Chinon perhaps, (and who may also have eventually met up with Cervantes' mother while he loitered in Spain because Cervantes could easily belong in this group too). That scenario might explain why Rabelais is so severe on pilgrims, certain that they would do better to stay at home and mind their own business instead of roaming the world meddling in other people’s lives. It might also explain why Rabelais became a monk, because clearly, he had no inclination towards obedience, chastity or penance of any kind. But without proof for such speculation, the only solution is to make Rabelais an 'honorary' Irishman, which I hereby ordain, 'rabelaisian' being another word for 'earthy' when all is dead and sung.

In any case, Rabelais’ influence, his ‘pantagruelisme’, can be seen clearly in the work of these Irish writers. Some critics claim that Joyce never read Rabelais. Be that whatever truth it is, I found many parallels in the themes and writing styles of both authors. Apart from their use of satire against church and state, they each thread jokes and opportunities for laughter into all sorts of subjects even those that touch on serious issues like illness and death. They particularly enjoy spoonerisms (contrepèterie**) and wordplay of all sorts, in multiple languages en plus, and they make frequent references to bodily organs and functions, especially excremental ones. Rabelais really enjoys giving us the details of his characters’ bowel movements, and in fact, the one reference to Ireland I found in his work is a scene where Panurge shits himself in fear and then tries to pretend that the smell is ‘Irish Saffron’: C’est sapphran d’Hibernie!, he shouts triumphantly after denying it could possibly be any of a long list of words for turds in several languages.

The parallels I’ve mentioned regarding Rabelais and Joyce can be found in the work of the other writers in my group to greater and lesser extents. Laurence Sterne claimed that Rabelais was his favourite writer, and the influence can be seen in the pleasure Sterne takes in the ribald and the absurd even though Rabelais’ world of giants and battles is a far cry from the intimate scenes Sterne created in Tristram Shandy. On second thoughts, there are battles in Sterne’s work too, it's just that they are waged in the smaller domestic arena between Tristram's mother and father or in his Uncle Toby's garden, while the gigantic wars fought by Gargantua and his followers actually have their origin in the stealing of a couple of loaves of bread from a smalltime baker. So the themes are more similar then dissimilar. And both authors focus on the birth of their main characters, determined to describe the details as bawdily and repulsively as possible.

There is also a preoccupation with the details of birth in Samuel Beckett's work; in the case of characters like Molloy, for instance, and the Unnamable, the details have all the grotesqueness we find in Rabelais, as in characters not being born quite in the usual way. In fact Beckett, with his focus on the body and its functions, came to mind several times while I was reading Rabelais, especially when I came across the many examples of propos torcheculatifs (toilet talk).

Then there's Jonathan Swift. He and Rabelais have toilet talk and double meaning language in common but also a 'giant' theme, friendly giants in each case, though Gulliver is perhaps more timorous than Gargantua or Pantagruel. But since Swift liked to satirise everything that could be satirised he resembles Rabelais most in that aspect of his writing.

The last of the group, but by no lean feasts, is Flann O’Brien. Flann and Rabelais share an interest in describing food, though it may be of slightly different quality in each case. They each have a love of wordplay, and sentences containing lists, and both enjoy creating fantastical worlds. And of course they both have a strong inclination towards earthy humour. However, and this thought struck me in a very serendipsodic manner since by chance I’d begun reading one of Flann's books while reading about Pantagruel in the Land of the Dipsodes, there is one aspect of Flann’s writing which links him to Rabelais most particularly and indeed allows Rabelais the strongest claim to honorary Irishness: the important role given to 'drinking' in the text. Each is a bon videur de pintes, a pint of plain for Flann, a pint of purée de septembre for Rabelais (his favourite term for wine). The author/narrator both Gargantua and Pantagruel is called Alcofribas, and is referred to as an ‘abstracteur de quinte essence’ on the title page.*** While many would see that as a reference to alchemy or philosophy, I think it’s quite simply a reference to his main preoccupation: distilling the fifth essence: alcohol!

The language of Rabelais' text constantly recalls the language of wine-making—from tramping the grapes to the final drinking process. Common notions are transformed where possible: Pandora's box becomes Pandora's bottle, for example. Many scenarios begin or end with a description of the amount of wine being drunk or about to be drunk or just having been drunk. Rabelais addresses us not as readers but as ‘buveurs’ or drinkers, and he reminds us that it is while he is drinking that he reflects on the world and makes up his stories, and that while writing them down he laughs at life and continues drinking.

So in honour of these writing heroes and heroic drinkers,
who’ve quaffed and laughed and loved and left,
I've created a venue where they can all hang out together
and talk about drinking and writing and laughing and drinking - Chateau Rabelais!


view image:


*Rabelais creates a really funny scenario involving a debate between a French man and an English man consisting entirely of hand signs. The signs, including a ‘ficafist’, thumb protruding between the index and middle finger, are openly insolent, especially on the part of the Frenchman.
**example of Rabelais’ contrepèterie:
'femme folle à la messe' becomes 'femme molle à la fesse'
('a mad women at mass' becomes 'a woman with a sad ass' or at least that's my version of Rabelais' contrepèterie (which is an apt word in the circumstances because it encompasses a fart (pet) and Rabelais loves fart jokes). Flann O'Brian enjoys the art of contrepèterie too, and especially if it concerns anything rude. There's a phrase in Irish, Níl aon tinteán mar do thinteáin fein which means 'there's no fireplace like your own fireplace' or 'no place like home' which Flann spoonerises as follows: Níl aon tón tinn mar do thóin tinn fein which means 'there's no sore ass like your own sore ass').

***Alcofribas is listed as the author of Gargantua and of Pantagruel but Rabelais signed his own name to the final three books in the series. In any case, Alcofribas Nasier is an anagram of François Rabelais.

Image source:
The image is part alcolised, part apped. I used acrylics to paint the bottle and background, mixing sediment from the bottom of a wine bottle into the paint. It started out as a joke present to someone who gave me a very special bottle of wine. I took a photo of the 'painting' and changed a few details including the 'thank you' label, using the art studio app, and so the bottle was recycled for rabelaisian purposes..

Edit - September 21st 2016: found another reference to Ireland, this time in Le Cinquième Livre: durant cette descente il ne nous apparaissait pas d'autre lumière, pas plus que si nous avions été dans le trou de saint Patrick en Irlande...

Review of Pantagruel
Profile Image for Leonard Gaya.
Author 1 book1,198 followers
April 30, 2020
La vie très horrifique du grand Gargantua, père de Pantagruel et de ses parents, Grandgousier et Gargamelle (créatures semi-divines, descendants, à ce qu’il semblerait, du roi Arthur et de Merlin), est l'un des rares livres qui provoquent, à la lettre, de rire « à gorge déployée ». Tout dans ce récit est évocation du corps et en particulier du tract digestif : la gorge, le gosier, l’estomac, les intestins et toutes les beuveries et diverses mangeailles qui y pénètrent à chaque page, puis, en fin de parcours, la merde, les pets, la pisse, qui chient et barytonent du cul et jaillissent de la braguette avec une puissance de cataracte.

Le langage de l’humaniste tourangeau est une logorrhée / diarrhée, à l’image de ces mouvements digestifs : répétitions spasmodiques, allitérations gargouillantes, assonances masticatoires, métaphores laxatives et accumulations « qui tiennent au corps ». Bref, la langue de Rabelais se doit dire à voix haute et « la bouche pleine » pour être comprise. Et, le moins qu’on puisse dire est que, en la déclamant, on finit un tantinet « beurré ».

Toutefois, dans la tradition de l’exégèse médiévales, il y a ici matière à creuser davantage sous l’apparence dionysiaque de la lettre. Car, telle une lasagne ou tranche napolitaine, sous les histoires de goinfrerie et de derrière, il y a maints ingrédients philosophiques — l’utopie de Thélème et les références plus ou moins distinctes à Platon et à Aristote, à la Sorbonne et à la pédagogie médiévale, aux humanistes — ; maintes notes politiques — allusions aux conflits entre François Ier de France, Henry VIII d'Angleterre et Charles V d'Espagne — ; et plus d’une pincée d’Alchimie et de Kabbale — qui requièrent un palais raffiné pour être saisies.

Quoiqu’il en soit, ce conte héroï-comique, obscène et scatologique, est une peinture jouissive et « rigolarde » de notre humanité. Gargantua est, bien sûr, le père de Pantagruel, mais aussi celui de Don Quichotte, de Falstaff, de Gulliver, du Baron Münchausen, des ogres des frères Grimm et, sans oublier, d’Obélix et des Monty Python.

Mais pour l’heure, après une telle lecture, Seigneur Dieu da mihi potum !
Profile Image for Marie-Victoire.
86 reviews
July 22, 2021
There is no doubt that Rabelais was drunk when he invented this story.
Profile Image for lucie ★.
42 reviews2 followers
December 7, 2022
je suis RAVIE d'avoir enfin terminé ce livre car j'ai détesté
Rabelais t'as fumé quoi avant d'écrire ça ??? ça va pas d'écrire un truc pareil oh
Profile Image for Banu Gür.
37 reviews71 followers
February 13, 2018
Ortaçağda içinde bastırdığı her ne var ise grotesk bu metinde de o var. Rönesans döneminin başladığına kimse onun kadar sevinmemiştir herhalde zira başlamasaymış tüm bu içinde tuttukları hasebiyle orta yerinden çatlar patlarmış Rabelias :)
Profile Image for Pia G..
515 reviews207 followers
February 27, 2024
16. yüzyıl fransız edebiyatının zenginliklerinden biri olarak, rabelais'in mizahi ve satirik üslubuyla öne çıkan bu eser gargantua'nın çeşitli maceraları ve tuhaf olayları üzerinden zengin bir panoramayı sunuyor. rabelais, gargantua'nın dünyasını absürd detaylarla işlerken, aynı zamanda toplumsal eleştirilerini mizahi bir dille iyi işlemiş. kitap boyunca yazarın çağdaş dönem fransız toplumuna ve kültürüne yönelik eleştirileri de gözümden kaçmadı. kitabın sosyal ve kültürel eleştirileri takdir edilebilir ancak bazı yerlerde fazla ayrıntıya dalmış gibi hissettim bu da akışı bozarak beni içine çekmek yerine uzaklaştırdı.
Profile Image for Markus.
662 reviews110 followers
October 16, 2025
Gargantua was printed and edited first in 1534-1535 (printing had just been invented)
Pantagruel, son of Gargantua, was published first in 1532.
By François Rabelais, 1495 ?- 1553 (America had just been discovered,)
To make any sense of the works of Rabelais, we must take into account the historical environment of his time:
Religious inquisitions could and still do lead to accusations of heresy; the convicted would be burned alive in public.
Braving these dangers, Rabelais whirled up a literary dust storm.
He imagined his supersized, larger than life, stronger than Hercules, not intelligent, but good-natured heroes, Gargantua and Pantagruel, son of Gargantua.
They could eat and drink (especially drink) from morning to night, smash any castle, beat any army, outsmart any aggression, in short, were invincible.
In a humorous, witty, farcical, funny and even low and dirty language, exempt of all moral and psychological, he invented new words and expressions, often taken from popular origins, in short, the author wants his readers to laugh out loud.
Then, smartly woven into the adventurous events of the story, the attentive reader will notice the heroes lash out at critics against lying preachers, lazy monks, stealing lawyers, stupid aristocrats, and mad kings, etc.
It takes some time to get used to the language at first, but these works are a literary milestone and therefore a MUST-READ on my list.
It appears that Cervantes, with his Don Quixote, fifty years after Rabelais, worked on a similar idea.
Profile Image for Emre Yalabık.
105 reviews51 followers
September 22, 2014
Douglas Adams'ın Otostopçunun Galaksi Rehberi serisinin ilk kitabında bahssettiği bir eser olduğu için ikinci kitaba geçmeden okudum. Yazarın bahsettiği şekilde "Milyar Kocaoburbeyin"

Gargantua ismi, garg en toi sözünden yola çıkılarak bulunmamıştır. Gargantua'nın doğumundan hemen sonra "içki içki" diye bağırmasını duyan babasının Gargantua'nın gırtlağını kastederek "que grand tu as" demesinden gelmektedir.

Gargantua sadece bir dev değil, iyi eğitimli bir entelektüeldir. bir sürü hocası vardır. Vücudu büyüdükçe beyin kapasitesi de artan ve bilimin her alanına hakim bir prens haline gelmesi kitabın ana konusunu oluşturuyor. Douglas Adams'ın süper beyin vs süper bilgisayar karşılaştırması bu özelliğine ithaf edilmiş.

Kitap 16. yüzyılda yazılmasına rağmen inanılmaz absürd bölümlere sahip örneğin;
" Bir kıç sileceği buluşu dolayısıyla Gargantua'nın ne yaman bir zekâsı olduğunu Grandgousier'nin nasıl gördüğü " , "Gargantua'nın altı hacıyı salatada nasıl yediği" , gibi..

Ortaçağın kasvetli sayılan ortamından yazılış ve anlatış tarzıyla oldukça farklı olan, okuması çok keyifli bir eser. Kesinlikle tavsiye ederim.


""bu kitabı okuyan okur dostlar
atın içinizden her türlü kuşkuyu
okurken de irkilmeyin sakın
ne kötülük var içinde ne muzurluk
doğrusu güldürmekten başka da
bir hüner bulamayacaksınız pek
başka yola gidemiyor gönlüm
sizleri dertler içinde görürken
gülen kitap yeğdir ağlayan kitaptan
gülmektir çünkü insanı insan eden""
Profile Image for Rowena.
501 reviews2,827 followers
March 6, 2013
This was one crazy story! It's very reminiscent of Voltaire's Candide but with a great many lewd jokes and a lot of dirty humour.It's bawdy, yes, but it also offers some philosophical insights into society. It's hard to believe that this book was written over 5 centuries ago.
Profile Image for Hande Kılıçoğlu.
173 reviews76 followers
February 27, 2017
Rönesans öncesi yazılmış, skolastik düşünce eleştirileri barındıran, oldukça eğlenceli bir kitaptı.
Profile Image for Laurence R..
615 reviews83 followers
October 6, 2017
Je n'ai aucune difficulté à voir le génie de Rabelais, mais ce roman a été si déplaisant à lire que je ne peux lui accorder plus de 2,5 étoiles. C'est un jugement tout à fait personnel et il concerne surtout la façon dont je me sentais quand je lisais ce roman, alors n'hésitez pas à le lire pour votre connaissance personnelle!
Profile Image for Maya Berrada.
29 reviews3 followers
July 28, 2023
Parcours rire et savoir : je n’ai éprouvé ni rire, ni savoir. Publicité mensongère.

update: c’est faux. c le livre le plus drôle et le plus intelligent de la planète.
Profile Image for Roger Burk.
586 reviews39 followers
September 9, 2015
I enjoyed this more than Pantagruel, which was written earlier but set later. Gargantua is better plotted. Amongst the extravagant, obscene, bawdy nonsense, it includes an almost serious account of the title character's education, which consists not of rote drills, but of puzzles and games to learn math, readings and discussions for the humanities, visits to craftsmen to learn practical arts, all at a pace to suit the taste of the scholar. One wonders if Rabelais seriously thought such an education would work. It seems not--Gargantua learns fencing by dropping in at a salle every once in a while, when it is raining. He astonishes the master with his skill, but any other fencer could hardly progress with such a lackadaisacal program. I think maybe what Rabelais is saying is, Wouldn't it be grand if we could learn like this? And maybe that some elements of Gargantua's education could be included into the curricula of his time with profit.

Similarly with the great war Gargantua wages. Wouldn't it be grand if wars could end with the enemy swiftly defeated, the one who caused the war escaping to become a bitter day laborer in Lyon, and the defeated army reconciled by our mercy?
Profile Image for Alexis Grenier.
64 reviews1 follower
Read
September 24, 2025
Assez difficile à lire à cause de l'argot de Rabelais, mais y'a quand même des grosses bars à travers le livre. En voici une :

« à cul de foirard, toujours abonde merde ».

Wow!
Profile Image for Alp Turgut.
430 reviews141 followers
September 18, 2018
Sanatın her dalına yön vermiş Fransız yazar, filozof ve hekim François Rabelais'in 1534 yılında yasaklanan eseri "Gargantua"nın devlet büyükleri ve din adamlarına dair metaforik eleştirileriyle kendine hayran bırakan tek kelimeyle mükemmel bir eser olduğunu söylemeliyim. Okudukça Rabelais'in vizyonuna şapka çıkartacağınız eserde yazarın kendinden önceki Homeros, Platon, Aristoteles, Cicero ve Erasmus gibi yazarları yalayıp yuttuğu rahatlıkla görülüyor. Kendinden sonraki Montaigne dahil olmak üzere bir sürü yazar ve filozofa ilham kaynağı olmuş "Gargantua", kısaca okudukça derinleşen gerçek bir başyapıt. Sabahattin Eyüboğlu'nun mükemmel çevirisini de unutmamak lazım.

04.11.2014
İstanbul, Türkiye

Alp Turgut

http://www.filmdoktoru.com/kitap-labo...
Profile Image for Alina.
270 reviews89 followers
August 11, 2020
This is absolutely brilliant! I gave it 4 stars the first time around, but this book deserves 5 stars. I love what Rabelais does with language and I'm (for the most part) quite partial to Grandgousier's leadership. Did you know that Rabelais was the first to write the word automate in French? He coined many neologisms, some of which are still used today in the French language. This is a very rich work that I will be returning to again and again for the rest of my academic career (however long it lasts). Highly recommend!
Profile Image for Gülüzar - Ertl.
105 reviews31 followers
September 1, 2016
Kitap masal tadında başlayıp basit bir tempodan sonra iyi bir sonla bitiyor. Kitaba biçilen paye bana biraz fazla gelse de edebiyat eleştirmeni değil sıradan bir okurum sonuçta.

Duvar ve güneş saati hakkında der ki;

"..benim bildiğim asıl zaman kaybı saatleri saymaktır...dünyada en büyük aptallık, insanın hayatını, sağduyusuna ve aklına göre değil de, bir çan sesine göre ayarlamasıdır."

İyi okumalar..
Profile Image for moi, k.y.a..
2,117 reviews386 followers
May 16, 2026
Pantagruel’i okuduktan sonra kitabı tekrar okumak istedim. harika ötesi bi’ eser.

eski okumalardan kalan notum:
fait ce que voudrais


Türkçe istediğini yap denilince gönlümde aynı etkiyi yapmıyor. çünkü bu söz için lisans hayatım boyunca, farklı farklı derslerde kim bilir kaç sayfalık ödev yazdım. kaç derste üzerine tartıştım...

kitabı ben o yıllarda, okuduğum büyüklü küçüklü biʼ dolu pasajla biliyorum. o yüzden yıllarda oturup baştan sona bir türlü okuyamadım. Hümanizmʼin en güçlü temsilcilerinden Rabelaisʼnin aslında beş kitap olarak kaleme aldığı serinin ikinci kitabı.

burada binlerce teknik şeyden bahsetmek yerine neden yıllardır beni bu kadar etkilediğinden bahsetmek istiyorum...

öncelikle roman sanatının izlerini taşıması beni kalbimden vurmuştu, ama hepsinden öte, dönemin şartlarında, düşüncelerini kaleme alabilmek için böylesine bir kurgusal ortam oluşturup sansürle mücadele etmiş olmasına hayran kalmıştım.

her noktası göndermelerle dolu olan kitap aslında bir dev ailesinin yeni üyesi olan Gargantuaʼyı anlatıyor. ismi bir anlamda büyük yiyiciyke bir noktada da annesinin que grand tu as (ne irisin) ifadesinin bitiştirilmiş halinden geliyor. aslında bu büyük yiyici, dönemin yiyici kurumunun mizanseni olarak karşımıza çıkıyor. mevcut sömürü sistemine karşı eleştirisini bu şekilde edebileştiren Rabelais, her şeyi kısıtlayan bu kurumun karşısına istediğinizi yapmayı salık veren bir öğreti koyuyor.

işte hümanizmanın hayat bulduğu o sözler:
Bütün hayatlar yasalara, tiziklere veya kurallara göre değil, kendi serbest iradelerine ve keyiflerine göre düzenlenmişti. Canları istediği zaman yataklarından kalkar, içlerinden geldiği zaman yer içer, çalışır, uyurlardı; onları kimse uyandırmaz, kimse içmeye, yemeye, ya da başka bir şey yapmaya zorlamazdı. Düzenlerinde yalnız şu kural vardı:

İSTEDİĞİNİ YAP
Profile Image for Carolina Jaime.
57 reviews
November 16, 2015
I had much, much higher expectations. I was expecting something similar to Voltaire's "Zadig" which I adored. Something with a much greater idea.

Honestly? This is only making fun of certain aspects of 16th-century French society. I found no philosophy hidden in this book that might have made it worthwhile.

It is supposed to be fun. Parody and stuff. But really, I just found it incredibly dull.

I took TWO weeks to read the 70 pages that constitute this book.


My point is, this was boring. Not in an it-was-a-bit-too-serious or I-like-YA-better way. I was not expecting action-packed chapters and beautiful metaphors or anything. I was ready for an average, educational read. But I learned NOTHING from it and I enjoyed no second of it. So. Pointless read for me.
Profile Image for SélenPiz.
146 reviews1 follower
April 14, 2020
Un livre que je n'aurai jamais lu si mon professeur de français ne nous l'avait pas imposé. Je n'ai pas du tout apprécié. Ma lecture a été lente et je m'endormais à chaque fois que je me disais que j'allais avancer. L'humour n'était pas du tout à mon goût et même si parfois je voyais les critiques dans certains passages, ça n'a pas changé mon avis sur ce livre. Il est certes bien écrit mais j'ai trouvé le style lourd et souvent assez ennuyeux à cause des longues énumérations.

Je n'ai pas apprécié cette lecture et je ne relirai certainement pas ce livre.
Profile Image for Ricardo.
140 reviews6 followers
October 12, 2015
O amansar da fera. Rabelais criou Gargantua à boa maneira do Renascimento: sem pudor, abraçando toda a exuberância linguística e (numa primeira fase) boçal característica deste período. Uma mistura entre humor, naturalismo e hipérbole oferece um quadro hilariante (e crítico) dos excessos perpetrados pelas famílias reais e nobreza europeias numa Europa em expansão cultural e política.

Gargantua, filho de Grandgousier e Gargamelle, é um gigante nascido após 11 meses de gestação, através da orelha da mãe, depois de ter ascendido através do tubo digestivo e após um jantar farto em tripa de porco. Não surpreende que o pequeno, alvo de admiração (e disputa) por parte das criadas pelo tamanho do seu pénis, inunde Paris com próprio mijo e obrigue a uma petição pública para devolver os sinos roubados à Catedral de Notre Dame. Desde o aspecto à estupidez, tudo é hiperbolizado. Rabelais, contudo, não se deixa ficar por uma patética descrição da selvajaria do petiz. O filósofo Ponócrates responsabiliza-se pela educação do herdeiro que, afinal, como verdadeiro membro duma família real, aprende todos os campos de conhecimento e arte à primeira vista. No fim de contas, não se trata somente de comer a sua manada/vara e beber a sua adega a cada refeição. O exageradamente animalesco torna-se exageradamente cultivado, promovendo inclusive a criação, através dum frade esclarecido, duma abadia onde a promoção do Humanismo Renascentista atinge todo o seu esplendor.

Esta obra pode ser definida como um proto-romance. A narrativa segue uma linha temporal coesa, focando-se todavia numa série de episódios da vida do jovem Gargantua e não no desenvolvimento duma história única, método introduzido umas décadas mais tarde na Europa. O estilo destaca-se peremptoriamente da escrita medieval, não só na irreverência, como na temática. Nunca antes e raramente após este período a escrita recorreu ao jargão boçal com tanta classe como Rabelais neste período. Rabelais não tinha medo (Francisco I era um protector poderoso, o que lhe conferia uma vantagem) de aliar uma boa gargalhada à boa literatura e conseguiu conjugar o naturalismo e grafismo da primeira parte da vida de Gargantua com a virtude da segunda.
As personagens mais sábias das peças de Shakespeare (e das cortes medievais) costumavam ser os bobos. Rabelais mantém o espírito do bobo e alia-o ao Humanismo Renascentista.
98 reviews3 followers
April 24, 2026
J'avais oublié que le début était aussi drôle
Author 2 books468 followers
Read
February 11, 2021
Elbette edebi metinleri donemlerine gore yorumlamak gerekir. Donemin skolastik dusunce yapisina, Sorbon'a, guncel tartismalarina yaptigi elestirileri bir karakterin uzerinden yapmis Rabelais. Fakat acikcasi kitabin, ciltlerce baska kitaba yaptigi baglantilari, referanslari takdir etmek gerekse de, metnin ve hikayenin bicim olarak da, konu olarak da "ucuz roman" yani cerezlik tabir edilen romanlardan pek farki olmadigini dusunuyorum.
Kitabin bicim yonunden eksikligi, ornegin "kic silme" bolumunde (Fransizcasi belki poetiktir) bir turlu bitmeyen ornek yigini gibi, neredeyse uc sayfa suren, Gargantua'nin oynadigi oyunlar listesi var. Sozgelimi bu oyun listesi adeta bir sozlukten alinmis gibi. Akisi bozan detaylar bunlar.
Karakterlerin kisilik hatlari da tam oturmamis. Kitapta kisiligi tam ve belirgin cizgilerle ayirt edilebilecek tek karakter gozupek yigit Kesis Joan. Basrolumuz Gargantua'nin Parislilere yaptigi cis saldirisi ile kitabin sonundaki insanlik dersi, Rebelais'in ayni karakter uzerinde hem komik bir dev hem de erdemli bir kisilik tasitmak istemesinden kaynakli bir celiski ornegi.
Egitim sistemine yonelik elestirileri ve utopik tavsiyeleri, donem icin belki onemli gorulse de, elestiriye asina olunmayan bir donemden bahsetmiyoruz. Moore'un Utopya'sini yazdigi bir donemden bahsediyoruz.
Devlet cihazını eleştiren kitap; dönemine gore iyi, ama edebi acidan yetersiz bence. Tabi bir marka oldugunu, Fransiz edebiyatinin temel taslarindan biri kabul edildigini de inkar etmeyerek sunu belirteyim ki, benimki yalnizca bir gorus farkliligi.

Profile Image for Caterina.
1,267 reviews62 followers
July 10, 2017
Çok keyifli bir kitap. Komedi gibi görünse de satır aralarından öğretici detaylar yakaladım. Hızlı okunuyor. Araya serpilmiş latince terimler yüzünden arada takılsanız da dipnotlar hızır gibi imdada yetişiyor.

Profile Image for maï.
28 reviews
January 21, 2022
si je pouvais mettre 0 étoiles je le ferais
ç'aurait pu être une histoire plutôt intéressante si elle avait été un minimum compréhensible
je l'ai pas réellement fini, donc si je le fais, peut-être que j'aurais un avis différent ?? bref.....
Profile Image for Mickaël Debayeux.
6 reviews
October 27, 2022
En théorie : un livre brillant et riche en tout point
En pratique : une lecture très douloureuse
Profile Image for kk.grce.
285 reviews18 followers
August 9, 2023
fond intéressant, la forme c’est autre chose

si l’humour pipi caca vous amuse, vous allez pleurer de rire
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