The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy, gentleman
Laurence Sterne
The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy, gentleman
FictionClassicsHumor & SatirePsychological Fiction
3.72from 23,356 ratingson Goodreads
"The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" by Laurence Sterne is a humorous novel published from 1759 to 1767. The work purports to be a memoir, but narrator Tristram doesn't reach his own birth until the third volume. Through endless digressions, he recounts four accidents that doomed him to misfortune while depicting conflicts between his irritable father Walter and gentle Uncle Toby. The novel features sexual innuendo, unfinished sentences, and surprising visual elements including blank pages and censored paragraphs, transforming Sterne from obscure clergyman to literary celebrity.
Contains spoilers for the entire book
- Themes
- Atmosphere
About the book
Published in nine volumes between 1759 and 1767, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman sets out to tell the life of its narrator and keeps being diverted. Tristram is not even born until the third volume, as the story wanders through his father Walter’s eccentric theories, his uncle Toby’s passion for fortifications and the loyal Corporal Trim. Laurence Sterne, a Yorkshire clergyman, filled the book with digressions, dashes, a black page, a marbled page and chapters that are missing or out of order, playing with the very idea of how a novel should proceed. Comic, bawdy and sentimental by turns, it anticipates many of the experiments of modern fiction.
Characters
Tristram Shandy — Narrator
A digressive autobiographer whose effort to explain his life continually leads him away from it.
Walter Shandy — Tristram's father
An opinionated man whose elaborate theories meet constant resistance from ordinary events.
Uncle Toby — Tristram's uncle
A gentle retired soldier absorbed in reconstructing military sieges.
Corporal Trim — Toby's companion
A loyal former soldier who assists Toby's campaigns and supplies his own practical eloquence.
Mrs. Shandy — Tristram's mother
Walter's wife, whose everyday concerns frustrate his appetite for abstract argument.
Parson Yorick — Clergyman
A witty local clergyman whose humor and good nature expose him to misunderstanding.
Widow Wadman — Toby's neighbor
A widow whose interest in Toby draws his military preoccupations into the complications of courtship.
About the author
Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) was an Anglo-Irish novelist and clergyman, born in Clonmel, Ireland, the son of an army officer, and educated at Jesus College, Cambridge. He was ordained in the Church of England and spent some twenty years as a country parson near York, little known outside his parish. In 1759, at the age of forty-six, he published the first two volumes of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, and became a celebrity in London almost overnight. Seven more volumes followed over the next eight years, along with collections of his sermons, published as The Sermons of Mr. Yorick. Suffering from tuberculosis, he travelled in France and Italy for his health, journeys that led to A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy (1768). He died in London a few weeks after it appeared.