Labyrinth of Digressions: Tristram Shandy as Perceived and Influenced by Sterne's Early ImitatorsWith their appearance during the 1760s, the five instalments of Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman caused something like a booksellers' hype. Small publishers and anonymous imitators seized on Sterne's success by bringing out great numbers of spurious new volumes, critical or ironic pamphlets, and works that in style and title express a congeniality with Tristram Shandy. This study explores these eighteenth-century imitations as indicators of contemporary assumptions about Sterne's intentions. Comparisons between the original, the first reactions, and a number of late eighteenth-century imitations, show that Tristram Shandy was initially read against the background of Augustan and Grub-street satire. The earliest imitators harked back to traditions of banter and folklore, bawdy and grotesque humour, pathetic stories and orthodox religiosity, reaffirming a pattern of moral and aesthetic values that was conservative for its time. Philosophical Sentimentalism appears to have been a late development. It is also argued that, partly because of their bad reputation, some of the authors of forgeries and parodies had a greater influence on the original than the reviewers to whom Sterne is often said to have listened. The imitators followed leads and themes in the first instalments, developing them according to their own conception of Sterne's project and the reasons for his success. As a consequence, they unintentially put a pressure on Sterne to alter his course, and even to abandon some of the narrative lines and themes he had set out for himself. The literature section contains a chronological checklist of English eighteenth-century Sterneana. |
Contents
9 | |
21 | |
23 | |
005 Sterne ch 2 rev BARFOOTSFINAL PI | 39 |
006 Sterne ch 3 BARFOOTSFINAL PI MS | 58 |
007 Part Two | 91 |
008 Sterne ch 4 rev BARFOOTSFINAL PI | 93 |
009 Sterne ch 5 rev BARFOOTSFINAL PI | 123 |
011 Sterne ch 6 rev BARFOOTSFINAL PI MS | 145 |
012 Sterne ch 7 rev BARFOOTSFINAL PI MS | 166 |
013 Sterne ch 8 rev BARFOOTSFINAL PI MS | 195 |
014 Sterne ch 9 rev BARFOOTSFINAL PI MS | 223 |
015 Sterne Epilogue BARFOOTSFINAL PI MS | 255 |
016 Sterne bibliototal MS | 281 |
313 | |
010 Part Three | 143 |
Other editions - View all
Labyrinth of Digressions: Tristram Shandy as Perceived and Influenced by ... René Bosch Limited preview - 2007 |
Labyrinth of Digressions: Tristram Shandy as Perceived and Influenced by ... René Bosch,Piet Verhoeff No preview available - 2007 |
Common terms and phrases
Anglican Anon appears Augustan Bandry Bertram Montfichet bookseller chapter character Charles Churchill Cibber Clockmakers Outcry Clonmell Colley Cibber Critical Review cultural digressive discussion edition eighteenth century England English Ephraim Tristram Bates Essay father feelings Fragment Garrick Gentleman Genuine Letter Griffith Grub-street hacks Hafen Slawkenbergius Hall-Stevenson History human humour Ibid ideas Jeremiah Kunastrokius John Buncle Laurence Sterne literary Literature London Magazine Manner of Sterne Maria Melvyn midwife modern Monthly Review moral narrator nature Novel obscene Opinions of Tristram pamphlet parody passages passions pathetic philosophical political Pope Posthumous Printed Querpo Rabelais readers reference Remarks Richard Griffith Rousseau Roy Porter satire Scriblerians seems Sentimental Journey sexual Shandean Shandy's Slop spirits spurious Vol Sterne imitations Sterne's story suggests Swift thought Toby's Tom Fool tradition Triglyph Tristram Shandy Triumvirate Uncle Toby Voltaire volumes of Tristram Walter Walter Shandy Warburton women writer Yorick Yorick's Meditations York
Popular passages
Page 32 - Ten times a day has Yorick's ghost the consolation to hear his monumental inscription read over with such a variety of plaintive tones, as denote a general pity and esteem for him; — a foot-way crossing the church-yard close by the side of his grave, — not a passenger goes by without stopping to cast a look upon it, — and sighing as he walks on, Alas, poor YORICK!