\b0 In 1534, on his return from his first visit to Italy, Rabelais published \i The vie trΦs horrifi
que du grand Gargantua, pΦre de Pantagruel\i0 (\i The Very Horrific Life of the Great Gargantua, Father of Pantagruel\i0 ). It followed the life of the giant from his birth to his construction of the hedonistic abbey of ThΘlΦme. Against the background o
f Paris's Latin Quarter and the countryside of the Loire Valley, Rabelais places his overflowing imagination at the service of his earthy heroes and of his minor characters, who include students, monks, and peasants. Beneath the unbridled fantasy of the
situations, however, lurk the humanistic ideas of the author, who conveys them through a sense of humor that is intended to make the reader think. As he himself puts it, \i ôthe matters dealt with here are no joke.ö\par
