The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy was one of those books that I knew I should read, or rather, should have read, not least because I was sure, from everything I had heard about it, that I would enjoy it immensely. The chance to visit Shandy Hall, the home Laurence Sterne and named for the character whose life and opinions he shares with us, finally compelled me to pull it off the shelf, and it was the perfect companion on a trip through Scotland and England.

Tristram Shandy has been called a postmodern novel, a claim which is, on its face, incoherent: published in the 1760s, it is, of course, a pre-modern novel. One understands, however, what those making this outlandish claim mean. Like many of his postmodern epigones, Sterne is as concerned with the form of his novel as he is with the events that fill it, and the form that governs this anarchically ungovernable, exquisitely formed, work is the digression. I think I am right in saying that none of the tales that constitute the book is told straight through in standard first-this-happened-then-that-happened style. Those who are concerned, therefore, with finding out what happened will be frustrated. Those who can laugh at their readerly frustration will find Tristram Shandy a delight, and regret that Sterne's novel ends—to the extent that such a novel can be said to have an end—at nine volumes. The notes that accompany the Penguin Classic edition are helpful, and Dylanologist Christopher Ricks's introduction is superb. Like all introductions, however, it should be read after one has finished the book.

Written in the mid 1700s, this is a madcap book. With deliberate diversions and side-stories and allusions that work so well for the first 100 or so pages, but he doesn't sustain the effect for the whole book. But, very modern for its time, and rightly still read. Read March 2009 ( )

As its title suggests, the book is ostensibly Tristram's narration of his life story. But central to the novel is the theme of not explaining anything simply, thus there are explanatory diversions to add context and colour to his tale, to the extent that we do not even reach Tristram's own birth until Volume III. However, beginning the narrative before one has been born is not unique in literature, for example see the opening chapter of David Copperfield. Consequently, apart from Tristram as narrator, the most familiar and important characters in the book are his father Walter, his mother, his Uncle Toby, Toby's servant Trim, and a supporting cast of minor characters including Doctor Slop and the parson Yorick (no doubt inspired by Shakespeare).

Most of the action is concerned with domestic upsets or misunderstandings, which find humour in the opposing temperaments of Walter—splenetic, rational and somewhat sarcastic—and Uncle Toby, who is gentle, uncomplicated and a lover of his fellow man. "The long-nosed Stranger of Strasburg": Book IV opens with a story from one of Walter's favourite books, a collection of stories in Latin about noses.

In between such events, Tristram as narrator finds himself discoursing at length on sexual practices, insults, the influence of one's name, noses, as well as explorations of obstetrics, siege warfare and philosophy, as he struggles to marshal his material and finish the story of his life. What makes this novel remarkable is the seeming modernity of the technique and style. As with Rabelais, Sterne does not follow the "rules" for writing a novel, thus one encounters multiple allusions to other writers and their works and interjections of many kinds into the novel so that you begin to wonder what kind of book this is. Sterne was particularly influenced by Rabelais and his bawdy humor is no doubt due in part to that influence. This is not an easy read but one worth taking in small sections, a bit at a time. Having read Tristram Shandy you may be ready for twenty-first century post-modern literature or you may want to hang up the idea of literature altogether. ( )

Includes facsimiles of title pages of the first and second editions. A reprint of the first London edition." p. lxxv. "First edition." Bibliography: p. lxxii-lxxv."

Very modern / postmodern writer from the 18th century. ( )