Free Online Library: Review of Edwin Duval, The Design of Rabelais’ Tiers Livre, Librairie Droz S. A., 1997. “In multiple episodes, Panurge, Pantagruel, and their followers listen to, then interpret, the advice of the pillars of society (theologian, doctor, philosopher, et al.), and, conversely, society’s misfits (a hag, a mute, an astrologer, a fool, a dying poet, and other non-institutional voices) on Panurge’s question: ‘Shall I marry?’ ‘If so, will I be cuckolded’? Duval argues that it is not the content but the mode of interpretation of each speech that counts, with the result that the Third Book becomes a testing ground for humanism’s hermeneutic debate over literal and figurative readings, dramatized by Panurge’s self-interested interpretations that twist speakers’ words to his own advantage. To this phi/autia Rabelais opposes Pantagruel’s example of interpretative generosity (‘interpreter toutes choses a bien’), a striking example of which occurs in the judge Bridoye episode, where Pantagruel elects to interpret ‘wrongly,’ rather than condemn a man whose good judgment has been tainted by old age.”