Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768), was an English clergyman who suddenly became famous as the author of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-1767). Tristram Shandy is an unconventional novel of conversations and reminiscences rather than action. Tristram is only about 5 years old when the story ends. This is partly because the work was never finished, but mainly because Sterne was more interested in other characters—Tristram’s family, their friends and servants. The book is lively and extremely witty. Its popularity reflects the growing regard for humor and laughter and for feeling and sentiment during that period. Tristram’s Uncle Toby, the simple and good-hearted soldier, climaxed a long line of lovable but comic eccentrics in the literature of the 1700’s.
The novel’s conversations and incidents do not follow a straightforward time sequence. Sterne was influenced by the philosopher John Locke. Locke thought that at birth the mind is a blank tablet upon which ideas take form only through the association of experiences gained through our senses. Locke observed that we may sometimes associate ideas that are logically unrelated. Such illogical chains of ideas form the basis of the narrative development in Tristram Shandy. Although readers may at first be confused by the way Sterne jumps from one idea to another, the book eventually may seem closer to our own experience of life than more conventional novels. Sterne’s method in Tristram Shandy anticipates the stream-of-consciousness novels of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf.
Sterne was born on Nov. 24, 1713, in Clonmel, Ireland. He suffered from tuberculosis and made trips to the milder climate of southern France for his health. These trips inspired A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768). Sterne died on March 18, 1768.
