Laurence Sterne, 1713 - 1768, Tristram Shandy, nine volumes, 1759 – 1767. A must-read is the Everyman’s Library edition, with an introduction by Peter Conrad, c. 1991, but included in Everyman’s Library as early as 1912. Written during reign of King George II or King George III -- Britain's American colonies. Well ahead of the Revolutionary War but probably aware of importance of colonies.
Yes, Laurence Sterne is deeply rooted in Yorkshire. In fact, Yorkshire is to Sterne what the Lake District is to Wordsworth — you can’t understand the man without the place. -- ChatGPT.
Updates
November 18, 2025: never quit reading.
The introduction to Tristram Shandy suggests that this novel was a "return" to the novel which "had been forgotten." See entry below with regard to edition this refers to.
The writer immediately references Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, and Samuel Richardson's Pamela. I've read much of Defoe but have probably not read Robinson Crusoe as an adult (for obvious reasons) but have enjoyed all his other work. And Pamela! Of all the books I've read over the years, I never would have imagined someone mentioning Pamela in an introduction to Tristram Shandy. I can't say it enough times, never quit reading. [Note: I believe I was mistaken: I read Richardson's Clarissa, not Pamela, but I bet there's not much difference. The distinction is important because I feel strongly that Virginia Woolf's decision to give Mrs Dalloway Clarissa as her first name could have easily been associated with Richardson's Clarissa. To further the "analogy," it's interesting that Clarissa Parry Dalloway's husband is Richard.]
For those with limited time, one option is to read two or three chapters of the novel in question. Then explore wiki and other reviews and then decide if one wants to read more of that novel. But a close reading of the first two or three pages, and then a solid look at the book through other internet sources and you should really have a great understanding of where this all fits.
Pamela was a real slog but I did finish it. I would like to re-read it more closely but it's just so incredibly long and wordy -- which one would expect.
Samuel Richardson's Pamela is typically between 450 and 830 pages, varying by edition, while Charles Dickens's novels range widely, with some being shorter like Hard Times (around 17,400 words) and others much longer, such as Bleak House (928 pages). Compared to most Dickens novels, Pamela is a moderately long book, but shorter than his longest works.
November 18, 2025: I bought a brand new copy of Everyman's Library edition of Tristram Shandy. I lost my original copy of this book; really look forward to visiting the book again, now that I know Sterne better. From Amazon, arrived today:
Original Post
197 pages; 111 chapters.
In the introduction, these four novelists were, perhaps, the “founding fathers” of the English novel: Defoe, Richardson, and Sterne, and Cervantes, though not English.
Mentioned in passing in the introduction: Marianne Moore, Jane Eyre, Don Juan (Byron), Hamlet, Whitman’s Prelude, and many others, particularly Fielding’s Tom Jones.
From page viii of the introduction,
“… Sterne discovers a new way of writing and a new way of understanding human nature which makes his book a sacred text both for Romantic poets and modern novelists, who like him want to liberate literature from its self-imposed and unnecessary rules.”
Everyman's Library was founded in 1906 and relaunched in 1991. It aims to offer the most complete library in the English language of the world's classics. Each volume is printed in a classic typeface on acid-free, cream-wove paper with a sewn full cloth binding.
I first read Tristram Shandy some years ago, probably in 2004 or thereabouts when I was at the height of my reading program which began in 2002. I was, at that time, reading about the evolution of the novel. Until much later, I did not know how "important" Richardson's Clarissa and Defoe's Robinson Crusoe were in that development, both of which I read about that time. It is no easy "thing" to get through Clarissa.
To some extent, I suppose, Laurence Sterne was the Mark Twain of his era.
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Notes
Introduction
Chapter 1
Homunculus.
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