Rabelais’s Contempt for Fortune

Francois Rabelais wrote Gargantua and Pantagruel at the height of the Renaissance, when top-caliber thinkers aimed to unite the best of freshly rediscovered ancient Greco-Roman theory and practice and transform politics. Through his work, Rabelais offers his unique understanding of ancient philosophy and political thought. This book considers the role of fortune as the key to understanding Rabelais, much in the manner of contemporaries such as Machiavelli. The two could not be more different, however. Throughout his writings, Rabelais attempts to restore respect for the goddess Fortuna through a cheerful restatement of the case for the sober classical attitude toward future things. As Rabelais’s headstrong character Panurge seeks counsel regarding his marriage prospects, various authorities repeatedly warn him that cuckoldry and spousal abuse await. Panurge looks foolhardy during these admonitions. Far from affirming Machiavelli’s instruction, given in chapter 25 of The Prince, to beat fortune like a woman, Rabelais dramatizes Panurge learning that his future femme may beat him. Through this dramatization, Panurge begins to hear the merits of viewing fortune as an intractable part of life that must be shouldered with the proper inner disposition rather than as an object susceptible of human conquest.

A political scientist by training, Haglund provides a well-researched analysis of François Rabelais’s doctrine of Pantagruelism (a coinage derived from the protagonist of Rabelais's Pantagruel, 1532) in terms of its 16th-century context. Haglund posits Pantagruelism as a solution to the dilemma about the appropriate interaction between philosophy and politics. Focusing on the Tiers Livre and the Quart Livre—in particular on the thorny question of Panurge’s marriage—the author argues that Pantagruel stakes a middle position between complete disengagement in the name of intellectual integrity as illustrated by Diogenes the Cynic and the far more interventionist approach taken by Rabelais’s Italian contemporary Nicolò Machiavelli. Haglund emphasizes in particular the contrast between Panurge’s desire to master fortune at all costs and Pantagruel's more measured approach, which is based in appreciation of the limits imposed by nature. The author engages actively with previous scholarship on Rabelais’s work, often challenging interpretations that, in his opinion, read either more or less into the work than Rabelais intended. Some of these challenges are more successful than others but all are thought provoking. The study is quite readable, but some prior experience with scholarship on 16th-century French literature will be helpful.Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty., Haglund’s thoughtful and informative volume is about more than Rabelais’s contempt for fortune because it is also about the nature of nature and philosophy in relation to Machiavelli and Diogenes but also more generally. , In his recent book, Rabelais’s Contempt for Fortune: Pantagruelism, Politics, and Philosophy Timothy Haglund reintroduces Rabelais beyond the comic and as a philosopher in his own right. Haglund makes sense of the contradictions of this philosophical comedian and provides insight into Rabelais as an introspective political thinker whose texts are significant sources of Renaissance intellectual history that ought rightly to take their place within a wider genealogy. Haglund’s book is a worthwhile study of Rabelais that makes unique contributions to existing literature., There is always a refreshing quality to reading a study on a major author that is written by a scholar from an entirely different background. Such an “outside” approach often enhances our understanding in quite significant ways. . . . This ambitious book is certain to open up promising venues of interdisciplinary investigation that will enhance our understanding of political philosophy in early modern literature., Rabelais dedicates his strange and fascinating masterpiece to the "most noble boozers," inviting his reader to drink deeply from his overflowing bottle. Timothy Haglund has dutifully followed this advice and proves a witty and insightful partner for the reader of Gargantua and Pantagruel. Haglund attends to the full range of Rabelais' concerns with the individual, family, and polity through the lens of the author's appreciative but critical engagement with Machiavelli.

Timothy Haglund is donor relations manager for Ashbrook Center at Ashland University.