I never cared much for Salvador Dali's art, and to this day feel quite ambivalent toward it. Some weeks ago tropical rain and a promising exhibit grove me to an art gallery. The topic was: book illustrations, and not just any books, but Don Kichote, The Divine Comedy, La Fontain fairytales and Gargantua and Pantagruel, all made by Dali. The latter made me pick the book, which I've been hoping to read for so many years and never finding the time. At last, I dove into it, and I sank right away. I haven't laughed this much since reading Don Kichote. It well deserves to be placed on the list of the best books, to be read before U die. One word of caution though: do not rush for it, this book requires some knowledge of the period, as well as other literary works that are profusely alluded to.If you can't wait, and just have to pick it up, I think you'll still find plenty to laugh about.
How Gargantua was born:
"A little while after she began to groan, lament and cry. Then suddenly came the midwives from all quarters, who groping her below, found some peloderies, which was a certain filthy stuff, and of a taste truly bad enough. This they thought had been the child, but it was her fundament, that was slipped out with the mollification of her straight entrail, which you call the bum-gut, and that merely by eating of too many tripes, as we have showed you before." Francois Rebelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel (get a free eBook from public domain).
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