Which French Renaissance author wrote 'Gargantua and Pantagruel'?

The French Renaissance author who wrote Gargantua and Pantagruel was François Rabelais. The work is a sequence of comic, satirical novels about the giant Gargantua and his son Pantagruel, written in exuberant sixteenth-century French.

Rabelais published Pantagruel first, in 1532, under the pseudonym Alcofribas Nasier, an anagram of his name. Gargantua followed in 1534. The later books appeared in 1546 and 1552, while the posthumous Fifth Book was published around 1564 and has disputed authorship. Together, the books mix giant adventures, learned references, bodily humor, wordplay, and criticism of rigid education and scholastic authority.

Rabelais was not only a writer: he was also a physician, humanist, Greek scholar, and Catholic priest. His medical background helps explain the books’ fascination with the body and anatomy. The work’s extravagant style gave English the adjective “gargantuan” and the adjective “Rabelaisian,” meaning broadly exuberant, coarse, or satirical.