Tristram Shandy

Someone should have told me what I was missing out on--this is one of the most cleverly written and subtly funny books I've read in a while. I think he's had me since the reference to homunculi on page 2.

Part of the appeal so far (and I'm still trying to figure out how Sterne does this) is that he makes you read it the way Shandy would have spoken it.

Try this passage, for instance:

Nor does it much disturb my rest when I see such great Lords and tall Personages as hereafter follow;--such, for instance, as my Lord A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J , K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, and so on, all of a row, mounted upon their several horses;--some with large stirrups, getting on in a more grave and sober pace;----others on the contrary, tuck'd up to their very chins, with whips across their mouths, scouring and scampering it away like so many little party-color'd devils astride a mortgage,——and as if some of them were resolved to break their necks. So much the better—say I to myself;—for in case the worst should happen, the world will make a shift to do excellently without them;— . . .

Shandy then follows this up with a sample dedication to a Lord, a self-evaluation of it, and an offer to place a particular Lord's name on it and place it in future editions of the novel for a small fee.

Comments

[dan visel]

Also worth picking up his A Sentimental Journey through France & Italy, which is travel writing that doesn't quite manage to get out the door - much smaller than Tristram, but just as nice. And if you haven't seen the Michael Winterbottom film adaptation . . .

[DerikB]

Have you read Diderot's "Jacques the Fatalist"? He was highly influenced by Sterne. It's a wonderfully humorous and experimental short novel. The path not taken by the 19th century novelists that came after.

[Elizabeth]

Terrific book! Dear Uncle Toby...sigh. Glad to hear a new reader is having fun with Tristram Shandy. You might want to check out the movie as well.

[Scott]

Dan, Derik,

You're making me reach for my moleskine.