Book description
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Now seen as one of the great English comic novels, 'Tristram Shandy'
caused a stir on publication in polite 18th-century English society. The
novel broke with conventions of form and structure, foreshadowing
postmodern authors by 200 years, and scandalized with bawdy descriptions
and rambling prose. Hugely influenced by Francis Bacon, Rabelais and
Jonathan Swift, clergyman Lawrence Sterne manages to both eloquently
champion the literary and scientific views of the day, and to satirize
those same idols in the next outrageous breath.
The questionable 'hero' and narrator of the novel, the eponymous
Tristram Shandy, attempts to tell the reader his life story, but as he
digresses ever further on everything from sexual practices, the
importance of a name, obstetrics, linguistics, weaponry and philosophy,
the reader quickly learns that the path won't be a linear one, and gets
wrapped up in the author's exuberance and wit - as Tristram's ill-fated
conception and birth don't even enter the story until Volume III.
Encompassing a humorously memorable cast of misfits, including his
eccentric father Walter, obsessive Uncle Toby, accident-prone mother
Susannah, pastor Yorick, and a gaggle of other characters, Tristram
Shandy's restless energy and modern-seeming wit explain why Nietzsche,
Karl Marx, Schopenhauer, Michael Winterbottom, and Michael Nyman count
among its numerous fans. Laurence Sterne (1713-68) was born and spent
his early childhood in Ireland, before moving to England, where he
studied at Cambridge and became a clergyman. The work for which he is
most famous, 'The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman', is
acknowledged as one of the most significant mileposts in the early
development of the novel form.
