The Cambridge Companion to Laurence Sterne » (New Edition)

Best known today for the innovative satire and experimental narrative of Tristram Shandy (1759-67), Laurence Sterne was no less famous in his time for A Sentimental Journey (1768) and for his controversial sermons. Sterne spent much of his life as an obscure clergyman in rural Yorkshire. But he brilliantly exploited the sensation achieved with the first instalment of Tristram Shandy to become, by his death in 1768, a fashionable celebrity across Europe. In this Companion, specially commissioned essays by leading scholars provide an authoritative and accessible guide to Sterne's writings in their historical and cultural context.

List of illustrations vii

List of contributors ix

Acknowledgements xi

Chronology xii

List of abbreviations xvi

Introduction Thomas Keymer 1

1 Laurencc Sterne's life, milieu, and literary career Ian Campbell Ross 5

2 Scriblerian satire, A Political Romance, the 'Rabelaisian Fragment', and the origins of Tristram Shandy Marcus Walsh 21

3 Tristram Shandy, learned wit, and Enlightenment knowledge Judith Hawley 34

4 Tristram Shandy and eighteenth-century narrative Robert Folkenflik 49

5 The Sermons of Mr. Yorick: the commonplace and the rhetoric of the heart Tim Parnell 64

6 A Sentimental Journey and the failure of feeling Thomas Keymer 79

7 Sterne's 'politicks', Ireland, and evil speaking Carol Watts 95

8 Words, sex, and gender in Sterne's novels Elizabeth W. Harries 111

9 Sterne and print culture Christopher Fanning 125

10 Sterne and visual culture Peter De Voogd 142

11 Sterne and the modernist moment Melvyn New 160

12 Postcolonial Sterne Donald R. Wehrs 174

Further reading 190

Index 198