The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (Penguin Classics) - Softcover

Sterne, Laurence

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141439777 ISBN 13: 9780141439778

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2003

Synopsis

Endlessly digressive, boundlessly imaginative and unmatched in its absurd and timeless wit, Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman is edited with an introduction by Melvin New and Joan New, and includes a critical essay by Christopher Ricks in Penguin Classics.

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.

Laurence Sterne (1713-1768) graduated from Cambridge in 1737 and took holy orders, becoming a prebend in York Cathedral. His masterpiece, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman made him a celebrity but ill-health necessitated recuperative travel and A Sentimental Journey grew out of a seven-month trip through France and Italy.

If you enjoyed The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, you might like Henry Fielding's Tom Jones, also available in Penguin Classics.

'The excellent Florida Tristram Shandy ... will be the definitive edition'
Studies in English Literature

'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

About this title

Review:

"A lot of nonsense is written about Laurence Sterne's "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" -- and that's just as well. It would be depressing in the extreme if this triumphant tangling up of the threads of reason with the strands of linear narrative were to admit of any effective unravelling; which is as much to say, that were you to find yourself picking apart a lucid, non-discursive exposition of the novel - its themes, its techniques, its plot -- you would know that you had finally gone mad." -- Will Self

Book Description:

Sterne's utterly original novel - the meandering, maddening 'autobiography' of one of literature's oldest comic characters.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0141439777
• ISBN 13: 9780141439778
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 784
• Editor: New Joan, New Melvyn