Librarian+for+Rabelais'+Abbey

Francois Rabelais' "Abbey of Theleme" depicts life at an imaginary monastery that is much different from any other. Rabelais bases life in the Abbey on a person's free will. Instead of rules and laws, residents do what they want when they want. Residents in the Abbey often do things they see that pleases one of them. Two articles that may help the reader understand "The Abbey of Theleme" are "Rabelais, //Gargantua and Pantagruel//" and "Rabelais' 'Abbey of Theleme.'"

"Rabelais, //Gargantua and Panatgruel//" is an excerpt that describes, in Rabelais' words, the rules that the Thelemites lived by: "All their life was regulated not by laws, statutes, or rules, but according to their free will and pleasure. They rose from bed when they pleased, and drank, ate, worked, and slept when the fancy seized them. Nobody woke them; nobody compelled them to either eat or to drink, or to do anything else whatsoever. So it was that Gargantua had established it. In their rules there was only one clause: DO WHAT YOU WILL!" ("Rabelais, //Gargantua and Pantagruel//"). This excerpt also tells about how the people treat one another in the Abbey of Theleme: "If some man or woman said, 'Let us drink,' they all drank; if he or she said, 'Let us play,' they all played; if it was 'Let us go and amuse ourselves in the fields,' everyone went there" ("Rabelais, //Gargantua and Pantagruel//").

"Rabelais' 'Abbey of Theleme'" describes the Abbey differently than "Rabelais, //Gargantua and Pantagruel//." "Rabelais' 'Abbey of Theleme'" gives a chapter by chapter overview of the Abbey, instead of just a particular excerpt. The information in this summary includes "How the abbey of the Thelemites was built and endowed, The inscription set upon the great gate of the Theleme, What manner of dwelling the Thelemites had, How the men and women of the religious order of the Theleme were appareled, How the Thelemites were governed and their manner of living" ("Rabelais' 'Abbey of Theleme'").

Both the excerpt from and the summary of Rabelais' "Abbey of Theleme" confirm that the Abbey was an ideal peaceful place. The chapter by chapter description of the Abbey of Theleme in "Rabelais' 'Abbey of Theleme'" is more in depth than the excerpt in "Rabelais, //Gargantua and Pantagruel//." Reading either the excerpt or the summary will further your knowledge of the Abbey of Theleme.

Posted by Socrates