frlit1-3, Exercise 2: Rabelais and Montaigne

Model answer:

Rabelais wrote the comic books about the giants Pantagruel and Gargantua, mixing scholarship, obscenity and satire; Montaigne wrote the Essais, short prose pieces in which he explored subjects, and himself, by thinking aloud. Rabelais is exuberant and earthy, while Montaigne is calm, conversational and sceptical. Rabelais believed in broad, humane education and freedom to follow one's nature, and Montaigne doubted that people can be certain of much and urged tolerance.

Check the details against a reference work.