Pantagruel

the long version

"From his mythical lineage and portentous birth, it is clear that Pantagruel is destined to be a very special giant. His adventures, his exploits and even his friends - most notably the lecherous, foul-mouthed Panurge - are all larger than life. Yet despite the hyperbolic and disproportionate nature of anything connected to him, Pantagruel's history is told with breathtaking lightness and wit. Filling his pages with ingenious new coinages, and an unashamed obsession with the scatological side of life, Rabelais blends prose and poetry, the sacred and the profane, to offer a heady satire of the religious society of his day."--Jacket.