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The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman Paperback – 19 June 2003

by Laurence Sterne (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars 601
Edition: 1st
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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.
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  1. ISBN-10
    0141439777
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0141439778
  3. Edition
    1st
  4. Publisher
    Penguin
  5. Publication date
    19 June 2003
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    12.95 x 3.3 x 19.56 cm
  8. Print length
    784 pages
  9. See all details
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About the Author

Laurence Sterne (1713-68) was a clergyman. The Life of Tristram Shandy made him a celebrity and he was lavishly feted when he visited London. During the latter years of his life he alternated between there and recuperative continental travels.
Melvyn and Joan New teach at the University of Florida.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin; 1st edition (19 June 2003)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 784 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0141439777
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0141439778
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.95 x 3.3 x 19.56 cm
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 out of 5 stars 601

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Top reviews from Australia

Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars But it's still one of the best novels ever written
Reviewed in Australia on 1 March 2018
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Yeah, it's long. Yeah, you might find it archaic. But it's still one of the best novels ever written.
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E. A. Solinas
5.0 out of 5 stars Pre-modern postmodernism
Reviewed in Australia on 12 January 2015
A line from the movie "adaptation" put it best: this was a postmodern novel before there was any modernism to be post to.

Simply put, Laurence Sterne threw out all the literary conventions of what a novel should be and how it should be arranged, a few hundred years before more recent writers like Calvino, Joyce and Danielewski did. The result is "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman," a gloriously rambling, richly entertaining sort-of-novel.

"I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me." So begins Tristram, who starts his life story with his "begetting," and attempts to tell the story of his birth and life, as well as the descriptions of relatives -- his lovable uncle Toby, his eccentric dad, his patient mother (who's in labor for most of the book).

But as he tries to tell us about his life, Tristram keeps getting sidetracked by all the stories that surround him -- his uncle's romance with the Widow Wadman and the war in which he received a nasty wound in a sensitive spot, the French, the doctor who delivered him, letters in multiple languages, the parson, the personal history of the midwife, and what curses are appropriate for what occasions.

Most novels are pretty straightforward -- they have a beginning, a middle and an end. But "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" totally ignores that, by having a beginning that lasts for the whole book, dozens of "middles," and no real end (it just stops at a suitable spot). All of this is without a real structure.

And he took this postmodern, break-all-the-rules mentality all the way, by including odd little illustrations -- when speaking of the death of Parson Yorick, Sterne includes a black page. Random empty pages. Asterisks instead of important paragraphs. And a bunch of squiggly lines to demonstrate precisely how the narratives in previous chapters looked.

At first glance, Sterne's writing style was pretty typical of his period -- detailed, somewhat formal in tone, and very talky. It takes a little while for Tristram to start dipping out of of his narrative -- at one point, he starts interrupting himself in midsentence. By the middle of the book, he's completely lost control of his own story.

And he twisted it around with lots of bawdy humor (such as poor Uncle Toby's groin injury, which causes quite a few problems), and the continuous comic stumbles of all the characters. On the subject of his own name, Tristram describes his dad's reaction: "Melancholy dissyllable of sound! which to his ears was unison to Nincompoop, and every name vituperative under heaven.")

Life is too rich to be encapsulated in a single story -- that's the problem with "Tristram Shandy," whose story is a classic comic delight of premodernist-postmodern skill.
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Joseph Kreuwels
5.0 out of 5 stars alles gut
Reviewed in Germany on 21 March 2024
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alles gut
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G
5.0 out of 5 stars Condizioni molto buone, tempo di consegna rispettato
Reviewed in Italy on 5 October 2023
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Condizioni più che ottime, descrizione del prodotto rispettata!
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Paulo Leite
5.0 out of 5 stars Tristram Shandy é a obra que teve o maior impacto sobre “Memória Póstumas de Brás Cubas" de Machado de Assis.
Reviewed in Brazil on 22 March 2017
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Tristram Shandy é algo parecido com graffiti. Imagine Laurence Sterne rabiscando todas as convenções literárias, olhando por cima do ombro para ver se a polícia aparece. Então aqui está a captura: este graffiti embala um soco artístico. Sterne não está realmente desfigurando o trabalho de seus contemporâneos; ele está apenas sendo um pouco irreverente com a literatura tão séria, acrescentando alguns ingredientes ao caldeirão. Ele é como um garoto punk que quer irritar as autoridades com páginas em branco, palavras grandes e piadas muito ruins. Sterne está um pouco cansado das respostas boazinhas e conclusões puras encontradas na literatura tradicional. Ele quer que seus leitores acordem e farejem o sol. Personagens estranhos e finais pouco convencionais tornam o material de leitura muito melhor; pense nos personagens dos desenhos animados da Warner (i.e., Pernalonga, Patolino, Papaléguas, Coiote, e outros) metidos em circunstâncias muito estranhas. Esses momentos confusos, engraçados e embaraçosos que acontecem na vida cotidiana são muito mais interessantes do que os enredos tradicionais. Basicamente a narrativa abrange tudo menos a vida de Tristram: as opiniões filosóficas de seu pai, a obsessão de sua mãe em dar à luz em Londres, a capacidade do seu pároco em deixar todos loucos, a mania do seu tio para os fortes de brinquedo e, mais do que tudo, como foi difícil escrever o livro. Sterne é perfeitamente ciente de que Tristram Shandy não existe no vácuo. Afinal, quão rebelde seria o graffiti sem cobrir alguma coisa? Estendendo a sátira sobre outras tradições literárias, Sterne está chamando a atenção para a maneira como contamos histórias. Narrativas fazem o mundo parecer ordenado e preciso. Mas a realidade é que vivemos em um mundo que não respeita qualquer tipo de fronteiras. Sua vida se encaixa em um das setes narrativas básicas daquele livro que ensina como interpretar um romance? Tem começo, meio e fim? Os personagens são estáveis, e eles sempre agem de maneira lógica? Claro que não! Sterne tem uma caneta em vez de uma lata de spray, mas ele está agitando as coisas de qualquer maneira. Boa leitura!
16 people found this helpful
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Clitandre
5.0 out of 5 stars cinq étoiles pour Sterne, étoile de première grandeur
Reviewed in France on 6 August 2014
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Vous connaissez la blague de matheux suivant laquelle il existe TROIS sortes de mathématiciens, ceux qui savent compter et ceux qui ne savent pas compter. Du côté des littéraires on peut dire vraiment que l'humanité se divise en deux groupes : ceux qui ont lu Tristram Shandy et ceux qui ne l'ont pas lu; cette lecture est une expérience à la fois troublante, étonnante et hilarante. Troublante parce qu'on a du mal à admettre que ce livre date du XVIII siècle (tant il est profondément moderne et inexplicablement peu connu). Etonnante, parce que l'auteur, Laurence Sterne va toujours au-delà des limites et utilise au maximum de leurs possibilités toutes les ressources de mise en question du récit linéaire et que, pourtant, malgré tous les cahots , les coups de frein brutaux, les virages inattendus et les détours imprévus, on s'attache aux personnages et à leurs lubies. Hilarant, parce que,du début à la fin tout est profondément comique, tout simplement. C'est le plus grand éclat de rire de la littérature.
Reste le problème de la langue et de la syntaxe, triturée, tordue, distendue, supendue souvent par les pieds. Ne parlons pas des inclusions, parenthèses et autres digressions, qui vont jusqu' à commencer une phrase à une page et la finir...quarante pages plus loin... Tout ceci pose des problèmes de traduction; En français je dispose de deux traductions différentes; cette édition en anglais en e-book m'a donné un excellent prétexte pour relire une nouvelle fois ce chef d'oeuvre.... A chaque fois on éprouve de nouveaux plaisirs, en plus du plaisir de répétition (bien connu des freudiens et bien sûr déjà souligné par Sterne lui-même).
Si vous aimez lire, si vous préférez Groucho Marx à son homonyme, n'hésitez plus !
13 people found this helpful
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CoffeeandCake
5.0 out of 5 stars An extremely humorous must-read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 July 2014
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I really loved this book! It had me laughing out loud (a rare quality in a book for me!) and marvelling at the wonderfully handled metatexuality, which is the order of the day here.

It's a fairly long read with the books included back-to-back and because I read it in one chunk I found at times that the constant digressions became slightly repetitive. However it still left me with the desire to tell everyone I came into contact with about it and urge them to read it. Tristram Shandy might not be everyone's humour, it is often fairly bawdy, but you you should definitely give it a go.
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