Enlightenment

Laurence Sterne: Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759-67)

Engraved frontispiece portrait of the Anglo-Irish novelist and clergyman Laurence Sterne (1713–1768), best known for his nine volume Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759-67). Of all 18th-century novels it is perhaps the least bound by precedent, Sterne’s strategy being to manipulate narrative time and voice, and parody accepted narrative forms. Although the work starts with Tristram’s narration of his own conception, his birth only takes place in volume three. There is no traditional conclusion. Sterne’s innovations also affect the actual from of the physical book, including, for example, marbled pages (shown here) and, most famously, an entirely black page. Sterne’s influence has proved wide-ranging, not least, upon modernist authors of the 20th century (Dr Johnson, however, disparaged the work as ‘odd’).

Sterne (Laurence), Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. 8vo. Works, Vol I. London, 1793
[A.17.124]