Son of Gargantua, Pantagruel – who, as a baby, breaks his cradle to pieces, strangles a bear, and eats his nurse’s hamstring – kicks off the French Renaissance. He is a good giant who spreads terror and whose exploits surpass those of Hercules. But Rabelais prefers Panurge, the handyman, an unscrupulous eternal student who knows sixty-three ways to get money, all quite dishonest. And these two monsters embark on fabulous journeys.
Now, these prodigious beings resemble us, and the monk-physician Rabelais is still here, bubbling with health and youth, full of ideas and mischief.