From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from )
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (or, more briefly, Tristram Shandy) is a humorous novel by . It was published in nine volumes, the first two appearing in 1759, and seven others following over the next seven years (vols. 3 and 4, 1761; vols. 5 and 6, 1762; vols. 7 and 8, 1765; vol. 9, 1767). Probably Sterne's most enduring work, it purports to be a biography of the eponymous character. Its style is marked by
Sterne had read widely, which is reflected in Tristram Shandy. Many of his , for instance, are reminiscent of the works of the
of the 17th century, and the novel as a whole, with its focus on the problems of language, has constant reference to 's theories in .
"The Jack-boots Transformed into Mortars": Trim has found an old pair of jack-boots useful as mortars. Unfortunately, they turn out to have been Walter's great-grandfather's. (Book III, Chapters XXII and XXIII)
As its title suggests, the book is ostensibly Tristram's narration of his life story. But it is one of the central jokes of the novel that he cannot explain anything simply, that he must make explanatory diversions to add context and colour to his tale, to the extent that Tristram's own birth is not even reached until Volume III.
Consequently, apart from Tristram as narrator, the most familiar and important characters in the book are his father Walter, his mother, his Uncle Toby, Toby's servant Trim, and a supporting cast of popular minor characters, including the chambermaid, Susannah, , and the parson, Yorick.
Most of the action is concerned with domestic upsets or misunderstandings, which find humour in the opposing temperaments of Walter—splenetic, rational, and somewhat sarcastic—and Uncle Toby, who is gentle, uncomplicated, and a lover of his fellow man.
In between such events, Tristram as narrator finds himself discoursing at length on , , the influence of one's name, and noses, as well as explorations of , , and philosophy as he struggles to marshal his material and finish the story of his life.
Though Tristram is always present as narrator and commentator, the book contains little of his life, only the story of a trip through France and accounts of the four comical mishaps which shaped the course of his life from an early age. Firstly, while still only a , Tristram's implantation within his mother's womb was disturbed. At the very moment of procreation, his mother asked his father if he had remembered to wind the clock. The distraction and annoyance led to the disruption of the
necessary to conceive a well-favoured child. Secondly, one of his father's pet theories was that a large and attractive nose was important to a man making his way in life. In a difficult birth, Tristram's nose was crushed by Dr. Slop's forceps. Thirdly, another of his father's theories was that a person's name exerted enormous influence over that person's nature and fortunes, with the worst possible name being Tristram. In view of the previous accidents, Tristram's father decreed that the boy would receive an especially auspicious name, . Susannah mangled the name in conveying it to the curate, and the child was christened Tristram. According to his father's theory, his name, being a -like conflation of "Trismegistus" (after the
) and "" (whose connotation bore the influence through
of Latin tristis, "sorrowful"), both doomed him to a life of woe and cursed him with the
the causes of his misfortune. Finally, as a toddler, Tristram suffered an accidental
when Susannah let a window sash fall as he urinated out of the window because his
was missing.
Uncle Toby and Widow Wadman by Charles Robert Leslie CCWSH1157
Sterne incorporated into Tristram Shandy many passages taken almost word for word from 's , 's ,
and many more, and rearranged them to serve the new meaning intended in Tristram Shandy. Tristram Shandy was highly praised for its originality, and nobody noticed until years after Sterne's death. The first to note them was physician and poet , who did not see them negatively and commented:
If [the reader's] opinion of Sterne's learning and originality be lessened by the perusal, he must, at least, admire the dexterity and the good taste with which he has incorporated in his work so many passages, written with very different views by their respective authors.
Critics of the 19th century, who were hostile to Sterne for other reasons, used Ferriar's findings to defame Sterne, claim that he was artistically dishonest, and almost unanimously accuse him of mindless . Scholar
closely analysed the alleged passages in 1970; he observed that while more recent commentators now agree that Sterne "rearranged what he took to make it more humorous, or more sentimental, or more rhythmical", none of them "seems to have wondered whether Sterne had any further, more purely artistic, purpose". Studying a passage in Volume V, chapter 3, Petrie observes: "such passage...reveals that Sterne's copying was far from purely mechanical, and that his rearrangements go far beyond what would be necessary for merely stylistic ends".
A major influence on Tristram Shandy is ' . Rabelais was by far Sterne's favourite author, and in his correspondence he made clear that he considered himself Rabelais's successor in humorous writing. One passage Sterne incorporated pertains to "the length and goodness of the nose". Sterne had written an earlier piece called A Rabelaisian Fragment that indicates his familiarity with the work of the French monk and practising Doctor.
Sterne was no friend of , a quality which Tristram Shandy gave a ludicrous turn to solemn passages from respected authors that it incorporated, as well as to the
literary genre.
One of the subjects of such ridicule were some of the opinions contained in 's , a book that mentioned
as the most respectable type of writing, and that was fav Burton's attitude was to try to prove indisputable facts b his book consisted mostly of a collection of the opinions of a multitude of writers, to which Burton often modestly refrained to add his own, divided into quaint and old- it discussed and determined everything from the doctrines of religion to military discipline, from inland navigation to the morality of dancing schools.
Much of the singularity of Tristram Shandy's characters is drawn from Burton. Burton's introductory address to the reader, where he indulges himself in a Utopian sketch of a perfect government, form the basis of Tristram Shandy's notions on the subject. Burton's quaint and old-fashioned categories inspired many of Sterne's ludicrous chapter titles. And Sterne parodies Burton's use of weighty quotations. The first four chapters of Tristram Shandy are also founded on some passages in Burton.
In Chapter 3, Volume 5, Sterne makes a parody of the genre of , mixing and reworking passages from three "widely separated sections" of Burton's Anatomy, including a parody of Burton's "grave and sober account" of Cicero's grief for the death of his daughter .
His text is filled with allusions and references to the leading thinkers and writers of the 17th and 18th centuries.
were major influences on Sterne and Tristram Shandy. Satires of Pope and Swift formed much of the humour of Tristram Shandy, but Swift's sermons and Locke's
contributed ideas and frameworks that Sterne explored throughout his novel. Other major influences are , and 's . It also owes a significant inter-textual debt to 's , Swift's , and the
collaborative work, .
The shade of Cervantes is similarly present throughout Sterne's novel. The frequent references to , the character of Uncle Toby (who resembles
in many ways) and Sterne's own description of his characters' " humour", along with the
structure of Tristram Shandy, which owes much to the second part of Cervantes' novel, all demonstrate the influence of Cervantes.
The novel also makes use of 's theories of , or the way we assemble what we know of ourselves and our world from the "association of ideas" that come to us from our five senses. Sterne is by turns respectful and satirical of Locke's theories, using the association of ideas to construct characters' "", or whimsical obsessions, that both order and disorder their lives in different ways. Sterne borrows from and argues against Locke's language theories (on the imprecision and arbitrariness of words and usage), and consequently spends much time discussing the very words he uses in his own narrative—with "digressions, gestures, piling up of apparent trivia in the effort to get at the truth".
There is a significant body of critical opinion that argues that Tristram Shandy is better understood as an example of an obsolescent literary tradition of "Learned Wit", partly following the contribution of D. W. Jefferson.
Some of Sterne's contemporaries did not hold the novel in high esteem, but its bawdy humour was popular with London society. Through time, it has come to be seen as one of the greatest comic novels in English. , in particular, considered it the acme and crowning of the novel form, one of the "four novels at the top of their class", along with Goethe's , Rousseau's , and Cervantes' .
famously commented, "Nothing odd will do long. Tristram Shandy did not last." Schopenhauer privately rebutted Samuel Johnson, saying: "The man Sterne is worth 1000 Pedants and commonplace-fellows like Dr.J." The young
was a devotee of Tristram Shandy, and wrote a short humorous novel, , which remained unpublished, that was obviously influenced by it. Goethe praised Sterne in , which in turn influenced .
Tristram Shandy has also been seen by
and other literary critics as a forerunner of many
and styles used by
authors, such as , , ,
The success of Sterne's novel got him an appointment as curate of St. Michael's Church by Lord Fauconberg in , Yorkshire, which included the living at (what Sterne called) . The medieval structure still stands today under the care of the Laurence Sterne Trust after its acquisition in the 1960s. The gardens, which Sterne tended to during his time there, are daily open to visitors.
In 1766, at the height of the debate about slavery,
encouraging the famous writer to use his pen to lobby for the abolition of the slave trade.
"That subject, handled in your striking manner, would ease the yoke (perhaps) of many – but if only one – Gracious God! – what a feast to a benevolent heart!"
In July 1766 Sancho's letter was received by Reverend Laurence Sterne shortly after he had just finished writing a conversation between his fictional characters Corporal Trim and his brother Tom in Tristram Shandy wherein Tom described the oppression of a black servant in a sausage shop in Lisbon which he had visited. Laurence Sterne's widely publicised 27 July 1766 response to Sancho's letter became an integral part of 18th century abolitionist literature.
"There is a strange coincidence, Sancho, in the little events (as well as in the great ones) of this world: for I had been writing a tender tale of the sorrows of a friendless poor negro-girl, and my eyes had scarce done smarting with it, when your letter of recommendation in behalf of so many of her brethren and sisters, came to me — but why her brethren? — or yours, Sancho! any more than mine? It is by the finest tints, and most insensible gradations, that nature descends from the fairest face about St. James’s, to the sootiest complexion in Africa: at which tint of these, is it, that the ties of blood are to cease? and how many shades must we descend lower still in the scale, ere mercy is to vanish with them?—but ’tis no uncommon thing, my good Sancho, for one half of the world to use the other half of it like brutes, & then endeavor to make ’em so."
An illustration from page 76 of cartoonist 's
adaptation
Tristram Shandy has been adapted as a
has worked sporadically on
as an opera since 1981.[] At least five portions of the opera have been publicly performed and one, "Nose-List Song", was recorded in 1985 on the album, .
The book was adapted on film in 2006 as , directed by , written by
(credited as Martin Hardy, in a complicated metafictional twist), and starring , , , , , and . The movie plays with metatextual levels, showing both scenes from the novel itself and fictionalised behind-the-scenes footage of the adaptation process, even employing some of the actors to play themselves.
In February 2014, a theatrical adaptation by Callum Hale was presented at the
Tristram Shandy has been translated into many languages, including German (repeatedly, beginning in 1769), French (repeatedly, beginning in 1785; by Guy Jouvet, 2004), Hungarian (by Gy?z? Határ, 1956), Italian (by Antonio Meo, 1958), Czech (by Aloys Skoumal, 1963), Spanish (by José Antonio López de Letona, 1975; Ana María Aznar, 1976 and , 1978), Portuguese (by José Paulo Paes, 1984), Norwegian (by Bj?rn Herrman, 1995–96), Finnish (by Kersti Juva, 1998), Dutch (by Jan & Gertrude Starink, 1990) and French (by Guy Jouvet, 2004).
A historic site in , called , is part of the . The home was named after the house described in Tristram Shandy.
involves a bookseller selling forgeries of rare books, in particular a first edition of Tristram Shandy.
In the 1946
chats up a bookshop owner (Dorothy Malone) and pretends to be interested in a vintage copy of Tristram Shandy.
In 's novel , the narrator speculates that the scheming clergyman, Mr Slope, is descended from Dr Slop in Tristram Shandy (the extra letter having been added for the sake of appearances). Slope is also called "Obadiah," a reference to another character in Sterne's novel.
Russian writer
made multiple references to Tristram Shandy in his novel The Flying House, or Conversations with Milord (the "milord" of the title being Sterne).
refers to Tristram Shandy in the context of trying to describe his interactions with his own father:
My father - but these words, at the head of a paragraph, will carry the reader's mind inevitably to Tristram Shandy. On second thoughts I am content that they should. It is only in a Shandean spirit that my matter can be approached. I have to describe something as odd and whimsical as ever entered the brain of S and if I could, I would gladly lead you to the same affection for my father as you have for Tristram's.
The text of Tristram Shandy uses the phrase "my father" at the head of a paragraph fifty-one times.
In the Hermann Hesse novel, "The Journey to the East", Tristram Shandy is listed as one of the co-founders of The League.
, a fictional character in Tristram Shandy
Hnatko, Eugene (1966). .
65 (1): 47–64.
Griffin, Robert J. (1961). . College English 23 (2): 108–12. :.
Petrie (1970) pp.261–6
Ferriar (1798), chapter 6, p.181
see Gargantua: Chap 2.XIX: Trismegistus was to be Tristram's name but Susannah couldn't remember it long enough.
. The Guardian. 22 July .
Ferriar (1798), chapter 2, pp.24, 28–31
Tristram Shandy, Book 3, chapters 38 and 41
Rabelais, Book 1, ch. 40 Pourquoi les moines sont rejetés du monde et pourquoi certains ont le nez plus grand que les autres
Ferriar (1798), chapter 3, pp.55–9, 64
Walsh, Marcus (2009). . Cambridge University Press 2014.
Chapter 1.X: Rosinante, "Hero's Horse" and "Don Quixote's horse"
Jefferson (1951)[]
Cartwright, David (2005) E.
Peter Jan de Voogd, John Neubauer (2004)
"". The Guardian (UK). Retrieved on 20 October 2007.
. Random House 2012.
Bridgwater, Patrick (1988) , pp. 352–3
Francis Wheen (July 2001). . W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 25–.   2011.
Tom Keymer (13 April 2006). . Oxford University Press. p. 14.   2012. Then in early March...Sterne himself went to London where he was immediately greeted as the literary event of the season. For the next eleven weeks he was passed from hand to hand through the upper echelons of London Society. Befriended by Garrick, painted by Joshua Reynolds, patronized by William Warburton and Lord Bathurst..., interviewed by James Boswell, put in communication with William Hogarth.. and with William Pitt.., presented at court by the marquis of Rockingham and the duke of York...
Carey, Brycchan (March 2003).
26 (1). Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies. pp. 1–13 2013.
Phillips, Caryl (December 1996). "Director's Forward". Ignatius Sancho: an African Man of Letters. London: National Portrait Gallery. p. 12.
(PDF). Norton.
. Amazon.co.uk 2012.
Lewis, C.S., Surprised by Joy, 1955, Chapter VIII.
Jefferson, D. W. (1951). . Essays in Criticism 1: 225–48. :.
(1970) , , Vol. 65, No. 2, April 1970, pp. 261–66
Alter, Robert (1968). "Tristram Shandy and the Game of Love". American Scholar 37: 316–323.
Bosch, René; Piet Verhoeff (translator) (2007), "Labyrinth of Digressions: Tristram Shandy As Perceived and Influenced by Sterne's Early Imitators", Costerus, new series (Amsterdam: Rodopi) 172,  
Brady, Frank (1970). "Tristram Shandy: Sexuality, Morality, and Sensibility". Eighteenth-Century Studies 4 (1): 41–56. :.  .
Green, Peter (2010). . Open University (Open Research Online Repository).
Halliday, E. M. (2001). Understanding Thomas Jefferson. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.  .
New, Melvyn (1992). The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Laurence Sterne. Basingstoke: Macmillan.  . Collects Brady and Jefferson's essays.
Norton, Brian Michael (2006). "The Moral in Phutatorius's Breeches: Tristram Shandy and the Limits of Stoic Ethics". Eighteenth Century Fiction 18 (4): 405–423. :.  .
Towers, A. R. (1957). "Sterne's Cock and Bull Story". ELH 25 (1): 12–29.  .
Wikimedia Commons has media related to .
– A collection of editions of Sterne's works housed in Shandy Hall, Coxwold, York.
(scanned books original editions colour illustrated)
(plain text, HTML and other)
, links to first editions online and other resources.
—scholarly journal for the critical and historical investigation of all aspects of the work and life of Sterne
—Glasgow University Library Special Collections Department
, by Jack Lynch
: Hidden categories: