“This exemplary reference work provides a comprehensive, clearly structured, and well-written collection of essays that answer convincingly the introduction’s title, “Why Read Rabelais Now?” Indeed, the volume is a celebration of Rabelaisian proportions, conveying a sense of the subject’s wit and playfulness in the essays themselves. Smith, and Walter Stephens.įrom the Bainton Prize committee’s report: They include: Tom Conley, François Cornilliat, Marie-Luce Demonet, Diane Desrosiers, Mireille Huchon, Elsa Kammerer, Jelle Koopmans, Claude La Charité, Nicolas Le Cadet, Frank Lestringant, Romain Menini, Gérard Milhe Poutingon, Marie-Claire Thomine, Jean-Charles Monferran, John Parkin, Jeff Persels, Anne-Pascale Pouey-Mounou, Michael Randall, Paul J. The contributors are eminent scholars of early modern literature. A third section gives concise interpretations of each of the five books of the Pantagrueline Chronicles. Two sections of this volume situate Rabelais’s work in the larger social, political, and literary context of his time.

His genre-bending fiction combines vast erudition, comic verve, and critical observations of all spheres of contemporary life that are relevant to this day. A monk, medical doctor, translator and editor, Rabelais embodies the ideals of Renaissance humanism.

Winner of the 2022 SCSC Bainton Prize for Reference WorksĪ Companion to François Rabelais offers the most comprehensive and up-to-date account of the works of François Rabelais, one of the most influential writers of the Western literary tradition.

The complete works of françois rabelais