'L-d! said my mother, what is all this story about? - A COCK and a BULL, said Yorick - And one of the best of its kind, I ever heard' One of the greatest novels ever written, now in a wonderful new clothbound edition Laurence Sterne's great masterpiece of bawdy humour and rich satire defies any attempt to categorize it, with a rich metafictional narrative that might classify it as the first 'postmodern' novel. Part novel, part digression, its gloriously disordered narrative interweaves the birth and life of the unfortunate 'hero' Tristram Shandy, the eccentric philosophy of his father Walter, the amours and military obsessions of Uncle Toby, and a host of other characters, including Dr Slop, Corporal Trim and the parson Yorick. A joyful celebration of the endless possibilities of the art of fiction, Tristram Shandy is also a wry demonstration of its limitations. The text and notes of this volume are based on the acclaimed Florida Edition, with a critical introduction by Melvyn New and Christopher Ricks's introductory essay from the first Penguin Classics edition. 'The book that I would never tire of ... Sterne was about 250 years ahead of his time' Roy Porter, author of Enlightenment: Britain And The Creation Of The Modern World

Purporting to be an autobiography of the antihero Tristram Shandy, Laurence Sterne's novel is a comic masterpiece of digression, egoism and sensationalism, as its hilarious asides, explanations and host of memorable secondary characters - such as Uncle Toby, Dr Slop, Parson Yorick and Widow Wadman - take centre stage, at the expense of the actual life events the book sets out to depict. A humorous compendium of European thought and literature - pastiching the likes of Locke and Bacon and referencing Pope, Swift, Cervantes and Rabelais - emerges amid the convoluted accounts of Tristram's conception, misnaming and accidental circumcision by a sash window, in a shrewd narrative that examines the role and nature of language itself.

In annotated texts based on those of the acclaimed Florida Edition of The Works of Laurence Sterne , this edition features the two works Sterne produced in the final year of his illness-plagued life: the witty, bawdy, pathetic, and thoughtful A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy ; and Continuation of the Bramine's Journal , Sterne's correspondence to a twenty-two-year-old married Englishwoman living in India ("a Diary," as he put it, "of the miserable feelings of a person separated from a Lady for whose Society he languish'd"). Together, these mutually illuminating works offer rich insight into their author's hopes, fears, loves, longings, and philosophy as he prepared to face death and judgment. Excerpts from related texts provide context for understanding the title works in relation to the earlier writings and life of this exuberant yet subtle genius of eighteenth-century English literature.

This Norton Critical Edition includes: * The first London edition (1759) of Sterne's revolutionary and influential novel. * Textual notes, explanatory footnotes, and a preface by Judith Hawley. * Three illustrations. * The Author on the Novel, fourteen judiciously chosen letters from the latest scholarly edition. * A wide range of early responses that demonstrate Tristram Shandy's changing reception from its publication through the nineteenth century. * Eleven major critical interpretations, ten of them new to this edition. * A Chronology of Laurence Sterne's life and work and a Selected Bibliography. About the Series Read by more than 12 million students over fifty-five years, Norton Critical Editions set the standard for apparatus that is right for undergraduate readers. The three-part format-annotated text, contexts, and criticism-helps students to better understand, analyze, and appreciate the literature, while opening a wide range of teaching possibilities for instructors. Whether in print or in digital format, Norton Critical Editions provide all the resources students need.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

La escritura de Laurence Sterne (1713-1768), nacido en lrlanda, brota de la corriente que abrieron Rabelais y Cervantes, y que habria de llegar hasta Joyce. Tristram Shandy es una pieza clave en la formacion de la novela moderna, en la que el lector descubre con asombro como la veta subversiva que alienta la narracion desborda los limites de la peripecia para contaminar las mismas convenciones del genero. La autorreferencia, la paradoja y el subjetivismo se alian con la explotacion de los recursos tipograficos para crear, ademas, una de las novelas mas divertidas de la literatura inglesa.

Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy is narrated by the title character in a series of digressions and interruptions that purportedly show the "life and opinions" - part of the novel's full title - of Tristram. Composed of nine "Books" originally published between 1759-1767, the novel has more to do with Shandy family members and their foibles and history than it seemingly does with Tristram himself. However, it is through Tristram's relating the actions, beliefs, and opinions of his family members - primarily his father, Walter Shandy, and his paternal Uncle Toby - that the reader gets a clearer picture of Tristram's character.

‘L—d! said my mother, what is all this story about? –
A COCK and a BULL, said Yorick – and one of the best of its kind I ever heard’

Laurence Sterne’s great masterpiece of bawdy humour and rich satire defies any attempt to categorize it. Part novel, part digression, its gloriously disordered narrative interweaves the birth and life of the unfortunate ‘hero’ Tristram Shandy, the eccentric philosophy of his father Walter, the amours and military obsessions of Uncle Toby, and a host of other characters, including Dr Slop, Corporal Trim and the parson Yorick. A joyful celebration of the endless possibilities of the art of fiction, Tristram Shandy is also a wry demonstration of its limitations.

The text and notes of this volume are based on the acclaimed Florida Edition, with a critical introduction by Melvyn New and Christopher Ricks’s introductory essay from the first Penguin Classics edition of the novel.

THE FLORIDA EDITION

Sterne's Sentimental Journey is a novel without a plot and a journey without a destination. Here, Sterne records the adventures of the amiable Parson Yorick, as sets off on his travels through France and Italy, relishing his encounters with all manner of men and women, particularly the pretty ones. The tale rapidly moves away from the narrative of travel to become a series of pathetic and ironic incidents, dramatic sketches, philosophical musings, and anecdotes. Here, sharp wit is mixed with gaiety, irony with tender feeling forging a truly original style and establishing Sterne as the first of the stream-of-consciousness writers.

At once endlessly facetious and highly serious, Sterne's great comic novel contains some of the best-known and best-loved characters in English literature--including Uncle Toby, Corporal Trim, Parson Yorick, and Dr. Slop--and boasts one of the most innovative and whimsical narrative styles in all literature. This revised edition of Sterne's extraordinary novel retains the text based on the first editions of the original nine volumes (with Sterne's later changes), adds two illustrations by William Hogarth, and expands and updates the introduction, bibliography, and notes, to make this the most critically up-to-date edition available. The text of the novel preserves, as far as possible, the appearance of Sterne's idiosyncratic typography and features such as black pages, marbled pages, blank pages, missing chapters and other devices. The introduction sheds light on the novel's innovations and influence and provides a biographical account of the author. Comprehensive notes identify the profusion of references and reveal previously overlooked sources. The book will appear in time for the 250th anniversary of the publication of first two volumes.
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