General
Gargantua and Pantagruel, Book IV
Free options are listed first. Book Search Party does not host audio.
Free sources are not affiliate links.
Listen for free
- LibriVoxListen at LibriVox (opens in a new tab)
Free public-domain recording.
Download MP3 ZIP (opens in a new tab)Read the text (opens in a new tab) - Internet ArchiveListen at Internet Archive (opens in a new tab)
Free public-domain recording.
About this audiobook
This fourth in the five novels about the giants Pantagruel and his father Gargantua is the last novel indusputably attributed to François Rabelais. Seeking an answer to doubts arising in the previous novel, Pantagruel and his friends go to sea to find an oracle (the Holy Bottle). Their adventures provide many opportunities for satire, the most effective being against intolerance, credulity, and cowardice, with Pantagruel himself always affording a calm center of sanity and equilibrium. As the sea and the islands teem with monsters and madmen, so the style erupts: Nearly endless lists tumble out, nonsense words of 20-30 syllables challenge the tongue and baffle the mind, and recondite learning spills with hilarity onto the page. The author's imagination appears to explode with jokes, nonsense, flights of fancy, frivolities, and fun, held loosely together by a set of well-defined characters and a silly quest. (Summary by Thomas A. Copeland)
Summary source: LibriVox / Wikipedia.
Public-domain status depends on your jurisdiction. Check the source page before downloading or redistributing.