With his birth itself a monumental exploit, it is clear that the giant Pantagruel is destined to great things, and the novel that bears his name chronicles the remarkable life of the exuberant youth: from his voracious reading habits to his escapades with the roguish Panurge and his prowess in battle.

The second work in this volume deals with the history of his father Gargantua, whose biography is equally if not more outlandish and larger than life. But these bawdy and boisterous tales, with their fixation on food and faeces, are not just entertaining yarns, as François Rabelais, one of the foremost humanists of the sixteenth century, parodies medieval learning, lambasts the authority of the established church and develops his own ideal visions for the ordering of society.

Part of Alma Classics Evergreens Series

Also part of Essential French Masterpieces (Now at £25)