'Nothing odd will do long,' said Dr. Johnson; 'Tristram Shandy did not last.'
But Tristram Shandy has lasted, to be cherished in the century of Joyce and Pirandello perhaps even more than in the eighteenth. No one description will fit this strange, eccentric, endlessly complex masterpiece. It is a fiction about fiction-writing in which the invented world is as much infused with wit and genius as the theme of inventing it. It is a joyful celebration of the infinite possibilities of the art of fiction, and a wry demonstration of its limitations. It is also, in Christopher Ricks's words, 'the greatest shaggy dog story in the language.'
About the Author
Irish-born Laurence Sterne graduated from Cambridge in 1737 and took holy orders, becoming a prebend in York Cathedral. His masterpiece, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy 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. He died the year it was published, 1768.
Christopher Ricks (editor) is professor of humanities at Boston University and most recently author of Dylan’s Visions of Sin.
