François Rabelais was a French writer, humanist, and Greek scholar of the Renaissance, widely regarded as one of the first great prose authors in the French language. Though best known in his day as a physician, diplomat, and Catholic priest, he later gained lasting fame as a satirist. Living during the religious and political turmoil of the Reformation, Rabelais used his novels to address the major questions of his time. As a Christian humanist who admired Erasmus, he was highly critical of medieval scholasticism and frequently lampooned the abuses of powerful princes and popes, drawing opposition from both the Catholic Church and the Protestant theologian John Calvin.\n\nRabelais is most famous for his multi-volume narrative detailing the lives and childhoods of the giants Gargantua and Pantagruel. While the first two volumes are written in the style of a bildungsroman, his later works, the Third Book and Fourth Book, are considerably more philosophical and erudite. His unique literary legacy, characterized by gross robust humor, extravagant caricature, and bold naturalism, ultimately gave rise to the adjective "Rabelaisian" to describe this style of writing.
