François Rabelais

Rabelais, François (1492?–1553), French monk, doctor, and humanist author. With his Gargantua and Pantagruel (five books, 1532–62), an exuberant mixture of popular anecdote, bawdiness, and erudition, Rabelais created a comic masterpiece that is also an important social vehicle for exploring the important issues of society: education, law, philosophy, and religion. It is considered one of the great masterpieces of world literature.

See also: Humanism.