Major /lit/

3 > 2 > 1 > disciple

Haven't read the last two yet.

>>8245169
>disciple
What do you mean?
Also my bad, it was supposed to be 3 > 4 > 5 > 1 > 2 but in my edition of the book Gargantua's adventures are the first book, and Pantagruel's first adventures are the second.

>>8245178
>>disciple
>What do you mean?
https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Le_Disciple_de_Pantagruel/1875
Like 4 & 5 it may or may not be by Rabelais (though detractors' arguments are IMO the weakest in that they all boil down to it not being literary)
>1 > 2
Right, I mistakenly went by internal chronology instead of publication too

>>8245209
I never knew this existed, is it translated? The link you sent is in french.
Short summary of the story in the book?

>>8245219
No translation online AFAIK. From memory it's the seafaring adventures of Panurge and a generic crew between a few islands, with the grotesque fantasy elements you'd expect (a giant with eg birds living in him, shittings and fartings of said giant, and so on, then some savage peoples they fight with...). Content rather similar to the "marvel books" of the time, may even have directly taken from Lucian's stories, I don't recall. The introduction explained that they were the tales Rabelais entertained the worst-off with at the then-equivalent of a hospital, cripples or other kinds of seriously ill blighters, to distract them when he was practising. Said also that all that dated from before he wrote the books, but on the other hands elements from them are supposedly only mentioned later and incidentally, in books 4 and 5.
But it's indeed nothing more than that, no purpose to the stories, they don't deal with ideas.

>>8245301
A shame I can't read it, wish I knew french.
I think you'll like the fourth and fifth book, they have the biggest "adventure" feel to them, and while all five books are connected, the fourth and fifth one are the closest.
Third is my favorite because it's the most compact, with every event revolving around one major theme - Panurge's marriage. I loved how much philosophers, generals etc were cited by Pantagruel and others, but that is present in the other books too. I just think it's present the most in the third one.

>>8245318
>Third is my favorite
Are you familiar with "La farce de maitre Pathelin"? (/ the farce of master Pathelin, a medieval play; it's not as famous outside of France but you can find a summary easily still)
Had a huge influence on, well, all of medieval and early renaissance french lit, but on Rabelais and book 3 in particular. I don't remember to what extent it's referenced (nor even how explicitly, since the edition I read had notes that would point out associations of that sort) but it confirms and clarifies the ambiguity in the judges scene, with the lawyer's mad number. Sneaky Rabelais.

>>8245444
I'm not familiar with it, I'm pretty much a pleb when it comes to reading, still going through some major classics.
I've read Ulysses last month and I'm still blown away by it.

>>8245160
Which translation?

>>8246731
Well meme'd my friend