This Companion aims to assist today's Rabelais scholars in navigating the vast body of existing research, contextualizing the principal questions of the field, identifying its major scholars, and putting them into dialogue with each other. The topics of these essays may be familiar ground to many Rabelais scholars, but since the authors of these “compact critical essays” (21) frequently open up areas of interpretation rather than establishing firm conclusions, the volume invites scholars to participate in longstanding debates and also points them in the direction of areas where future scholarship could lend its focus.

The essays in part 1 are admirably concise while still offering thorough snapshots of some of the major lines of inquiry in Rabelais research. Each essay clearly identifies the following: episodes and characters from the Chroniques key to the question at hand; contemporary events that may have influenced the writing of those episodes; and pertinent voices in modern scholarship. Huchon investigates the limitations of documentary evidence of the man's life. Other essays explore how his professional endeavors manifest in his writing: this includes medicine (La Charité), religion/spirituality (Pouey-Mounou), and politics and the law (Randall). Humanism and its specific pursuits of eloquence are treated by Menini and Ménager, respectively. The essays by Stephens, Lestringant, and Koopmans deal with intertextuality and Rabelais's source materials. Many of the essays of part 1 also grapple with the thorny question of parody in how to approach Rabelais's texts; see, for instance, Pouey-Mounou's engagement with the debate over Rabelais the believer versus Rabelais the cynic. The essays by Stephens and by Koopmans are particularly useful for clarifying the objections to Bakhtin's Rabelais and His World for the new scholar.

Part 2 offers essential resources on each of the five books of the Chroniques, including such foundational knowledge as publication history, the prologues, the narrator(s), and arguments over the books’ genres and organization. These five chapters would be useful in undergraduate courses, particularly Le Cadet's essay on Gargantua, which helpfully points out parallels and divergences between the two first (and most read) volumes. Importantly, each of these essays talks about what it means to read Rabelais and look for his marrow of meaning.

The final section proposes discussions of Rabelais's lasting influence (“stylistic, linguistic, epistemological” [5]). Conley's essay explores the experience of reading digital copies of Pantagrueline prognostication. Demonet explains sign theory as understood by the time period, and also includes a fascinating tour of French regionalisms and swear words. Cornilliat describes how the Chroniques push women out of the narrative; this is the only sustained analysis of gender in the volume, though there are references to additional sources elsewhere (notably, 261n39). Renner and Parkin both explore the questions of Rabelaisian humor. Renner is interested in laughter's connection to indignation and social critique; Parkin explores the reader's interaction with the text, and what readerly good will is required to find it humorous. Persels examines the scatological components of the Chroniques; this essay is useful for parsing out Rabelais's sense of high/low culture beyond Bakhtin. Kammerer details the history of translating Rabelais and how such translations are intertwined with both religious history and the project of national literatures.

The Companion's utility is abundantly clear, and for a variety of contexts: the classroom, an MA student armed with a reading list, scholars both new and advanced. What is missing, to today's Rabelais scholar, is an understanding of alterity as seen through the Chroniques. Curious scholars could look at Demonet's and Parkin's contributions as a start. Demonet includes information about antisemitic violence in her discussion of Rabelais's interest in Hebrew; this is not treated as an afterthought but rather as an integral part of Rabelais's experiences and influences. Parkin's discussion of humor involves what he terms “clan-based satire” (494) that targets “social enem[ies]” like the Turks (512).

While the Chroniques are the primary focus, Rabelais's other writing and translations are also discussed. English translations are provided for any French citations. There is a substantial bibliography and separate indexes for cited primary and secondary sources. Some essays were translated from French, and very fluidly so.