Gargantua and Pantagruel

Gargantua and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais, was first published in the mid sixteenth century. A work of satirical and fantasy fiction, it tells the story, over 5 books, of two giants; Gargantua and his son Pantagruel as they travel through various lands. On their travels, they meet people on Tool Island, who are so fat, they slit their skin to let the fat puff out; the sexually prolific Semiquavers; the Furred Law-Cats, who imprison them; and, the Chitterlings, who attack them. Containing much vulgarity and wordplay, it was viewed as obscene by some, and treated with suspicion during a social age of religious oppression.