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Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (Revised)
Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (Revised) | Laurence Sterne
At once endlessly facetious and highly serious, Sterne's great comic novel contains some of the best-known and best-loved characters in English literature--including Uncle Toby, Corporal Trim, Parson Yorick, and Dr. Slop--and boasts one of the most innovative and whimsical narrative styles in all literature. This revised edition of Sterne's extraordinary novel retains the text based on the first editions of the original nine volumes (with Sterne's later changes), adds two illustrations by William Hogarth, and expands and updates the introduction, bibliography, and notes, to make this the most critically up-to-date edition available. The text of the novel preserves, as far as possible, the appearance of Sterne's idiosyncratic typography and features such as black pages, marbled pages, blank pages, missing chapters and other devices. The introduction sheds light on the novel's innovations and influence and provides a biographical account of the author. Comprehensive notes identify the profusion of references and reveal previously overlooked sources. The book will appear in time for the 250th anniversary of the publication of first two volumes. About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
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BarbaraJean
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Was this book one of the most frustrating reads of my grad school career? Yes. Is it completely baffling that there‘s a film adaptation? Yes. Did I impulsively check out the movie from the library while picking up my holds? Yes. Am I going to watch it? Also yes.

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Hamlet
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Pickpick

This is a mind-spinning, radical, funny book, one way ahead if its time. Many 20th C experimental writers cite this 18th C book as an influence. It‘s most definitely not for everyone. Sterne largely tosses plot out the window because while Tristram tries to describe his own conception & birth, he gets lost in digressions; but soon we see that making digressions on thinking is the point.This book takes work, but it‘s rewarding & fascinating.

Hamlet Time jumps are a big feature: while telling a story, his uncle pauses to look at his pipe & almost fifty pages later, he rattles his pipe again... in between Tristram tells stories & musings until one forgets one is in a digression. Crazy! 4y
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ErinSBecker
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@runswithscissors007 #ispy books with grey covers (although I havent read any of these yet!)

@runswithscissors007 or anyone - can you find books with flowers on the cover?

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AMVP
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Had a gnarled B&N edition of Tristram Shandy that I've been looking to replace for a while now, and found this and an Olive edition while out running errands today.

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keepingupwiththepenguins
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Panpan

When you pick up a book called The Life And Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, you figure that you‘re going to read all about… well, the life and opinions of Tristram Shandy, who was probably a top bloke. But you‘d be wrong! Laurence Sterne has some fun in store for us, my friend. This is not a classic book for beginners. Full review here: http://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/the-life-and-opinions-of-tristram-shandy-gen...

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DreesReads
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Pickpick

It‘s long, exhausting, funny, bawdy, and completely absurd. Did I love it? No. Is it hard to believe this book is 350 years old? Yes? Does it belong on the 1001 books list? Absolutely. It‘s an original for sure. #1001books #1000books

BookwormM 🤣🤣I hated this one I found it really boring glad you enjoyed it 6y
DreesReads @BookwormM I definitely struggled in the chapters that were full of historical references. The endnotes helped but not enough! 6y
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BarbaraJean
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1. On the Come Up, Ship of Magic, and Robert Frost‘s North of Boston (and a few others for church things, on centering prayer and on the Hebrew Bible)
2. Paperback for price, hardback for feel, eBook occasionally for convenience
3. Tagged—I just couldn‘t with Tristram Shandy. Even in a grad school class with one of my favorite professors. Turns out the 18th century is really not my jam.

#weekendreads

rachelsbrittain I'm so excited to read On the Come Up! Thanks for joining in 📚 6y
BarbaraJean @rachelsbrittain I‘m 90 pages in, and so far it definitely measures up—just as good as THUG! 6y
rachelsbrittain @BarbaraJean that's so good to hear!! 6y
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JLaurenceCohen

Tristram Shandy is an absolutely zany novel that anticipated postmodernism way back in the 17th century. The narrative is hyper-self-aware, as it leaps through time and directly addresses the reader. Don't expect anything to happen.

TobeyTheScavengerMonk I need to read this. I found a cool old copy at a used book store and bought it because I love the movie so much. 6y
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Faibka
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“The world‘s only pattern, according to Sterne, lies in that web of sympathetic interconnections which links us to our fellow beings, the short-lived representations of that timeless surge of life in which we are united.”

Finished Tristram and now reading the Critical essays. Very insightful and interesting, I‘m having a better appreciation for Sterne‘s work.

Happy #socksunday :)

BarbaraBB Impressive! 6y
batsy Well done! And love the boots :) 6y
vivastory I might have mentioned this before, but have you read 6y
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vivastory I have been slowly making my way through it this year & decided on a whim today to finish it by the end of the year (month). There is a fascinating chapter on sterne. 6y
Faibka @BarbaraBB @batsy I should clarify that the quote is from the essays included, this is a great edition and I highly recommend it! 6y
Faibka @batsy thanks, they‘re very comfortable too :) 6y
Faibka @vivastory Yes, I remember you mentioning this book, thank you for reminding me! I‘m going to order it and add it to next year‘s tbr. Btw, great way to end the year :) I‘m still dragging “Petersburg” around and might just apply myself to finish it and not carry it over to next year 6y
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Faibka
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Lol, I love this book

vivastory I started this a year ago and for some reason never finished it. Might make it a priority to read in January. 6y
Faibka @vivastory Great! I hope you give it another chance. It‘s such a wonderfully odd book, though it does take a bit to get used to, I think you would really enjoy it. Hopefully your edition is annotated as there are many passages in full Latin or French and it was nice to have a translation included. 6y
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Faibka
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Tell me about it...

batsy Indeed 🙃 6y
GingerAntics Some things never change. 6y
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Faibka
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“[...] nor are we angels, I wish we were, — but men cloathed with bodies, and governed by our imaginations...”

Happy Sunday!

MaleficentBookDragon Great cup! 6y
Faibka @MaleficentBookDragon thanks, I got it at Etsy from LennyMudd. It‘s reads “get knit done” 😆 6y
MaleficentBookDragon @Faibka I'm going to have to get that for my friend. Thanks! 6y
Faibka @MaleficentBookDragon oops it‘s LennyMud, just one d at the end. Cool! 6y
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Faibka
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“Is it not better to be freed from cares and agues, from love and melancholy, and the other hot and cold fits of life, than like a galled traveler, who comes weary to his inn, to be bound to begin his journey afresh?”

Aimeesue Lovely illustrations! 6y
Faibka @Aimeesue yes! Sadly it only includes a few of them 6y
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Faibka
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True!

tpixie Lol so true! Well maybe I shouldn‘t laugh.... 6y
Faibka @tpixie 😅 6y
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Faibka
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A marbled page, how cool! He refers to it as the 'motly emblem of my work'. I wish I owned a first edition where it is in color and each was unique :) I‘m liking this weird 18th century book.

For more information on it check out this link: https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/240278/

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Faibka
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What the heck am I reading? 😂

GingerAntics How many intersections does this guy need? Wow. This is from the 18th century, isn't it? That is total stream of consousness. 6y
Faibka @GingerAntics yes it was written in 1759 but has such a modern feel to it, it‘s so weird! Lol. Thankfully I read Ulysses at the beginning of the year so I‘m a lower degree of confusion 😂 6y
GingerAntics I have officially read to much from the 18th century...I can now peg it by strange writing style. lol (edited) 6y
Faibka @GingerAntics lol, I guess I haven‘t read enough yet 😆 6y
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Faibka
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“Do you understand the theory of that affair? Replied my father.
Not I, quoth my uncle.
But you have some ideas, said my father, of what you talk about.
No more than my horse, replied my uncle Toby.
Gracious heaven! Cried my father, looking upwards, and clasping his two hands together, there is a worth in thy honest ignorance, brother Toby, ‘twere almost a pity to exchange it for a knowledge.”

Ha! Enjoying this quirky book. Photo taken earlier.

erzascarletbookgasm I love your book sleeve! 6y
Faibka @erzascarletbookgasm thanks! I got it at Etsy, the shop is Story Hero, all my sleeves are from there, great quality and very prettty :) 6y
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Lcsmcat
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Faibka
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“—How could you, Madam, be so inattentive in reading the last chapter? .... I do insist upon it, that you immediately turn back, that is, as soon as you get to the next full stop, and read the whole chapter again.”

I‘m sorry Mr. Sterne but I‘m not rereading that chapter and I was being attentive! lol
Sick day, not much to do but read.

Laura317 Hope you feel better soon! Kitty snuggles help. 6y
Desha I hope you feel better soon! Sending good thoughts and wondering if maybe some warm miso soup might help? Miso soup is my favorite anytime but especially when I‘m not feeling well! 🥢 6y
Faibka @Laura317 @Desha thank you so much for your good wishes!! 💕💕I‘m feeling a lot better thank you 😊 @Desha I love miso soup too! I wish I could‘ve had some 6y
Faibka @Laura317 and yes, kitty snuggles are the best! 😺 6y
Desha @Faibka I‘m so glad to hear you are feeling better!! Miso soup 🥣 is so good anytime! My birthday is coming up and a friend of mine and I are driving about an hour away to go to a Japanese market up here yay! ☺️ San Diego has like 4 markets but up here where we live now there are none close by unfortunately! 🗾 6y
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Faibka
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“I have undertaken, you see, to write not only my life, but my opinions also; hoping and expecting that your knowledge of my character, and of what kind of a mortal I am, by the one, would give you a better relish for the other: As you proceed further with me, the slight acquaintance which is now beginning betwixt us, will grow into familiarity; and that, unless one of us is in fault, will terminate in friendship.”

batsy That edition 😍 I remember in university a philosophy prof asked some of us (all Eng Lit majors) how many of us have read this & none of us had & he said we don't deserve to be lit majors... I still haven't read it 😂 6y
Faibka @batsy lol, well, that‘s not as bad as studying a masters degree in Hispanic Literature and not having read Don Quixote 🙊 in my defense it was not my actual career path and I finally did read it 😂 6y
batsy Hahaha 😂 You finally got around to it, no shame at all! 6y
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Faibka
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Good point 🤔

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Faibka
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So far Sterne has proved to be a master of digression. Been promised since the beginning to learn about the protagonist‘s birth, but then started off telling a story of a midwife which was interrupted to learn more about her benefactor whose story will go on for two more chapters, haha. Not complaining, it‘s been delightfully entertaining!

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Faibka
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“As my life and opinions are likely to make some noise in the world, and, if I conjecture right, will take in all ranks, professions, and denominations of men whatever, —be no less read than the Pilgrim‘s Progress itself— and in the end, prove the very thing which Montaigne dreaded his Essays should turn out, that is, a book for a parlour-window...”

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LeahBergen
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mabell Digressive, imaginative, and absurd and timeless wit? Sign me up! 😆 7y
Leniverse Yeah, that one's on my TBR too. Fairly high up, as in I aim to read it before 2020 😆 7y
LeahBergen @mabell They had me at “bawdy”. 😆 7y
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LeahBergen @Leniverse That IS pretty high up the TBR. I‘m aiming for about 2025. 😆 7y
batsy I took an intro philosophy class once with a lot of other English majors and none of us had read this and the philosophy professor said we're an embarrassment to the study of literature... I still haven't read it 😂😂 7y
Hamlet This is a cool and funny book, wildly innovative at times & well worth your time. 7y
CrowCAH Perfect title! 7y
mabell @LeahBergen I missed that descriptor! 😆 7y
LeahBergen @batsy I‘ll be an “embarrassment” with you. 😄 7y
LeahBergen @Hamlet Thanks for the push! I‘m going to move it up the TBR pile. 7y
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GirlChandler
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Look out, world. I found Tristram Shandy.

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GoneFishing

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; had they duly considered how much depended upon what they were then doing...Had they duly weighed and considered all this, and proceeded accordingly, I am verily persuaded I should have made a quite different figure in the world, from that, in which the reader is likely to see me.

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TobeyTheScavengerMonk
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I love the movie (and all of the Winterbottom/Coogan/Brydon films for that matter) so this 1935 edition I found at Edward McKay's Used Books & More is definitely on my #ClassicsTBR

#JuneBookBugs

readordierachel Great movie! Steve Coogan is the best. 7y
TheKidUpstairs LOVE this movie! 7y
batsy Ooh, this book is on mine too. How cool to have an edition from the '30s! 7y
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jenniferw88
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Panpan

If Harry Bingham brings #death to his titles, then the 18th century novel brings #life! #Junebookhugs @RealLifeReading

Peterfox123 Tristram Shandy was one of the books my university studies forced me to read. There was no pleasure in it at the time and was a big reason for me abandoning the classics for many years after. It's probably still in a dusty box in our loft and, if I'm honest, I've no inclination to rescue it. 7y
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Jokila

The truest respect which you can pay to the reader's understanding is to halve this matter amicably, and leave him something to imagine, in his turn, as well as yourself.

Lindy Yes. 8y
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Krysta
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For #DNF for #readjanuary @RealLifeReading
The worst book I ever attempted to read I was assigned back in university in a "Rise of the Novel" class. I just couldn't do it.

I still wrote a paper on it that did well, but I never read more than 1/3 of the book itself.

Maybe I will attempt it again one day...

night_shift It's funny how little of a book you can read for class and still write a passing paper 😂😂 8y
Ubookquitous One of the few assigned classics I couldn't manage to finish. Hated it 8y
Krysta @UnidragonFrag I even tell my students about it and tell them if they can pull it off, I won't penalize them. 9+ years of teaching and no one has managed yet... 8y
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Krysta @Archetype67 glad it wasn't just me! 8y
Ubookquitous @Krysta No and as a lit major I always finished... hell I read Ulysses, Don Quixote, all the big Russians. But I couldn't get past 50 pgs 8y
Krysta @Archetype67 Yes, it is the only one I didn't read in university too. And I did the same types of courses. I just couldn't handle this one. 8y
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Anitta
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I don't often do #ThrewItAcrossTheRoom but this book sensed my wrath more than once. I did finish it, though. It was assigned reading for my literature class :/
They even tried to make a movie and failed or lost interest half way through, but eventually made an excellent documentary about filming the adaptation.

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HannahAlessandra
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My first #booktober post :) The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy Gentleman, which is a relatively long title - all things considered - though, to be honest, not as long as it could be - however, to be fair, I'm sure you agree, it must get some kind of bonus for having some of the longest (and most heavily punctuated) sentences around. Full disclosure: I never actually finished this one...yet #tristramshandy #oneday @RealLifeReading

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LorneGuyland
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Pickpick

A long and lovable cock and bull story. And I say that with a nudge and a wink. But I digress. And so does this book. Boy, does it digress.

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Wigwamrock
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The crowning achievement of British literary humor, and an opportunity for Steve Coogan to be suspended upside down in a massive uterus.

TheBookDream Bahahaha yes. 8y
TheBookDream I'm all for an excuse for Steve Cohan to do anything. 8y
TheBookDream Coogan* 8y
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Pinchclamp
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The best thing about spending the night at a friend's house who is a reader: no shortage of reading materials when you wake up before your hosts!

LauraBrook Nice! And what a beautiful copy of Shandy! 8y
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GoneFishing

The availability of books is not the same as reading them, nor reading the same as understanding them.

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livjhooper
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Then I saw this gorgeous little Oxford World Classics pocket edition of Tristram Shandy, and I had to have it. Discovered after that it had all these little bookmarks in left by the previous reader - who only made it to page 153 according to the 'Placemark', a little bit of card that also had 'Death' written on the reverse, ominously.

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LorneGuyland
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The Readathon begins with a bit of this. #24in48

shawnmooney Wow, so ambitious! I'm impressed. Always wanted to read it. 8y
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LorneGuyland
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"Digressions, incontestably, are the sunshine;--they are the life, the soul of reading..."

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LorneGuyland
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"...once a vile name was wrongfully or injudiciously given...but the injury of this, he would say, could never be undone,--nay, he doubled even whether an act of parliament could reach it..."

Don't give dumb names to your kids!

ReadingEnvy My college roommate had a theory that dumb named kids were the ones who ended up serial killers 😜 8y
haanim This book has been sitting on my shelf for years, I've just never gotten around to it. There's always another book that overshadows it. Interested to know what you think of it? 8y
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LorneGuyland
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😀 By chapter 14, Shandy has digressed so much in relating his biography that he hasn't yet related his birth.

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LorneGuyland
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"Did not Dr. Kunastrokius, that great man, at his leisure hours, take the greatest delight imaginable in combing of asses' tails, and plucking the dead hairs out with his teeth, though he had tweezers always in his pocket?"