Tristram Shandy
by Laurence Sterne
Summary
Tristram Shandy sets out to tell the story of his own life and opinions, then constantly interrupts himself with digressions about his eccentric family, his father's theories, and his uncle Toby's war wounds. Sterne plays with chronology, blank pages, and typographical jokes so thoroughly that the narrator barely reaches his own birth by the end of the book. The result is one of the earliest and strangest experiments in novelistic form, admired for anticipating techniques that would not become common for another two centuries.
Historical Context & Significance
Sterne published the novel in installments beginning in 1759, and its unconventional structure made it both a sensation and a puzzle for contemporary readers. Modern critics and writers, from Joyce to postmodern novelists, treat it as a forerunner of experimental fiction.