François Rabelais

Born near Chinon in France sometime between 1483 and 1494, François Rabelais lived an unusually varied life: he was a monk, a scholar of Greek, a physician, and a writer. That range shows in his work, which feels both deeply learned and joyfully alive.

He is best remembered for the series now known as Gargantua and Pantagruel, exuberant comic novels filled with giants, arguments, jokes, inventions, and satire. Behind the playfulness, Rabelais explored serious questions about knowledge, freedom, belief, and the institutions of his time, which is one reason his books have lasted so well.

Rabelais died in 1553, but his reputation only grew. He is often described as one of the first great prose writers in French, and his books still stand out for their bold imagination, earthy humor, and love of language in all its richness.