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toochicforsoup's review against another edition
2.0
Occasionally humorous but people drowning in rivers of the protagonist’s excrement multiple times was perhaps a bit excessive. 2/10.
wille44's review against another edition
2.5
Rabelais casts a long literary shadow, stretching to Cervantes to Sterne and Swift and even as far as Joyce and Pynchon. One of the first to commingle high and low satire, bawdy humor with academic commentary, his life's work Gargantua and Pantagruel are fascinating to return to. They retain a real joy and vivacity, but the transgressive nature of their humor has dulled with time and iteration. A large percentage of these stories' humor is scatalogical in nature, and your mileage may vary but I quickly hit a point of diminishing returns with characters pooping and peeing all over themselves and everyone else.
The stories of the two giants vary wildly from book to book, while Pantagruel's first book is a rowdy satire of knights tales, the third book is a much more restrained, "intellectual" satire of marriage and cultural norms of the medieval era in which the book was written. Regardless of the books' individual focus, across the board Rabelais is juxtaposing the erudition and constriction of the medieval upper classes with the squalor and revelry of the lower, while satirizing the lot of them. He targets academics of the time, royalty, and medieval culture at large.
The struggle for the contemporary reader is to grasp his academic wordplay, jokes, and references. They are numerous and clever, but for my reading completely unintelligible without consulting the numerous foot and end notes of my edition. Unfortunately having to research the majority of his jokes drains them of humor and grinds the flow of reading to halt, as I lack the background knowledge of the 1530s literary scene needed to laugh along with Rabelais. This leaves me with only his poop jokes, which are numerous, but which I was tired of by the second book.
It's a shame, as a result I feel I can only really enjoy Gargantua and Pantagruel from an almost archeological point of view. I unearth the stories, read them, and research enough to comprehend how clever and fun they are, but in the process the life and humor of the book is lost on me, by dissecting it to comprehend it I have killed it in the process for myself. If nothing else Gargantua and Pantagruel are still lively, bawdy, and outrageous as ever, but outside of this surface level humor it takes a preexisting historical grounding in medieval culture and scholarship to really engage fully with the book and understand the depths of it's satire and commentary.
The stories of the two giants vary wildly from book to book, while Pantagruel's first book is a rowdy satire of knights tales, the third book is a much more restrained, "intellectual" satire of marriage and cultural norms of the medieval era in which the book was written. Regardless of the books' individual focus, across the board Rabelais is juxtaposing the erudition and constriction of the medieval upper classes with the squalor and revelry of the lower, while satirizing the lot of them. He targets academics of the time, royalty, and medieval culture at large.
The struggle for the contemporary reader is to grasp his academic wordplay, jokes, and references. They are numerous and clever, but for my reading completely unintelligible without consulting the numerous foot and end notes of my edition. Unfortunately having to research the majority of his jokes drains them of humor and grinds the flow of reading to halt, as I lack the background knowledge of the 1530s literary scene needed to laugh along with Rabelais. This leaves me with only his poop jokes, which are numerous, but which I was tired of by the second book.
It's a shame, as a result I feel I can only really enjoy Gargantua and Pantagruel from an almost archeological point of view. I unearth the stories, read them, and research enough to comprehend how clever and fun they are, but in the process the life and humor of the book is lost on me, by dissecting it to comprehend it I have killed it in the process for myself. If nothing else Gargantua and Pantagruel are still lively, bawdy, and outrageous as ever, but outside of this surface level humor it takes a preexisting historical grounding in medieval culture and scholarship to really engage fully with the book and understand the depths of it's satire and commentary.
naiapard's review against another edition
I had it as a class assignment. I don`t see how I would have finished it (or even begun it, for that matter) if not for that pressure.
I didn`t find the crude jokes particularly tasteful nor the lewd parts that impressive.
As a reading for a certain study it goes, but I don't see it as a first choice in leisure readings (yes, i know, not all books are the same, nor they all have to be easy to read or to relax you in a form of complacency).
I hope you`ll have more fun than I did.
I didn`t find the crude jokes particularly tasteful nor the lewd parts that impressive.
As a reading for a certain study it goes, but I don't see it as a first choice in leisure readings (yes, i know, not all books are the same, nor they all have to be easy to read or to relax you in a form of complacency).
I hope you`ll have more fun than I did.
trouvaille21's review against another edition
5.0
i had heard A LOT about Rabelais' work, and given how strongly it was criticized back in the 16th century (and even today) of course i just had to see what the ruckus was all about
and let me tell you one thing: i think that many of the people in the comments take those books way too seriously which is exactly the opposite of what thw author intended (and if you're wondering where i know that from - it's literally in the prologue)
this is S A T I R E. satire is meant to be humorous and ironic; to ridicule, expose and criticize people's stupidity and vices. and given the historical and political climate it was written in, honestly i think that Rabelais did a brilliant job
and let me tell you one thing: i think that many of the people in the comments take those books way too seriously which is exactly the opposite of what thw author intended (and if you're wondering where i know that from - it's literally in the prologue)
this is S A T I R E. satire is meant to be humorous and ironic; to ridicule, expose and criticize people's stupidity and vices. and given the historical and political climate it was written in, honestly i think that Rabelais did a brilliant job
hoangly's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
abudding's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5