As a companion volume to "Pantagruel, " this new edition of "Gargantua" continues Rabelais' acclaimed fantasy of a mythical family of giants. "Gargantua" introduces Pantagruel's father--another wondrous giant. As he tells Gargantua's life story from his birth and education to his later life, Rabelais uses the events of the giant's life to parody medieval and classical learning, mock traditional ecclesiastical authority, and proffer his own thoughts on humanism and society. Marked with the same warm humor, obsession with food, and scatological wit of "Pantagruel, " "Gargantua" is a further striking burlesque on Rabelais' contemporaries and a glorious outpouring of Renaissance plenitude.