ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews a specific cluster of instances of the first person singular in Rabelais's writing. The instance that is the most visible to the reader occurs where a first person singular pronoun refers to the actual or supposed author. The second instance is that of the narrator as Commentator: in a number of episodes, the narrator intervenes in order to add a commentary on an aspect of the matter narrated. The third instance occurs where the first person is a character within the story, as in the episode in Pantagruel where the narrator accompanies Panurge in his quest for 'pardons', or more famously, later in the same book, where Alcofrybas ventures into Pantagruel's mouth. It is important to note that the first person as character in the fiction occurs only intermittently and as if randomly, without sequence, consequence or coherence.
