RABELAIS, François

(?1494-1553)

   French monk, doctor, priest and writer. The various manuscripts now generally published as Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532-52 plus a posthumous text of dubious authenticity 1564; many trans, of which the best known is that by Sir Thomas Urquhart - first 2 books 1653 UK, 3rd book 1693 UK - and Peter Le Motteux - 4th and 5th books 1694 UK, and of which the most successful contemporary version is trans Burton Raffel 1990 US) form an immense, exuberant, linguistically inventive SATIRE with mostof medieval Christendom the target. The giants of the title are enormous both physically and in their joyous gusto. In the Fourth Book (1552) of the sequence, ISLANDS exemplary of various aspects of society are visited-including the island of the Papimanes, description of whose inhabitants involves a radical criticism of the Catholic Church. Darker and more bitter in tone, the Fifth Book (1564) - which may well have been completed by another hand from FR's first draft-incorporates a section, The Ringing Island (1562), originally published separately, with the mostnotable sf imagery of the entire work. The islands of the 4th and 5th books were probably the most sustained invention of other worlds in literature up to that time. The succession of ALIEN societies, often making some kind of satirical comment on our own, complete with all sorts of colourful anthropological detail, has been greatly influential in PROTO SCIENCE FICTION, and its resonances can be sensed even today in the workof writers like Jack VANCE, who, even if not directly influenced by him, continue the FR tradition.

   JC/PN

   See also: FRANCE.