2-356-511 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'Rabelais', 1882. Francois Rabelais (c1495-1553) was a French writer, satirist, humanist, doctor and monk. Born at Chinon in Touraine, he is best remembered as the author of the romance La Vie de Gargantua et de Pantagruel (The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel) which appeared in four volumes between 1532 and 1552. A fifth work appeared posthumously in 1554 but is of doubtful authenticity. These four comic novels tell the story of the giants Gargantua and Pantagruel. The style is coarse, ribald and exuberant, and the use of language imaginative. The English language owes two adjectives to Rabelais: Gargantuan - of tremendous size or volume, huge appetites and Rabelaisian - coarse, robust, bawdy humour. A print from The Magazine of Art Vol V, Cassell, Peter, Galpin and Company, Limited, 1882.