help with Tristram Shandy

Hello, VanillaZuella, and welcome to Able2Know.

I once took a course called "History of the English Novel" at Univ. of California at Berkeley and recorded this in my notes from Dr. Brightfield's lecture:

"Sterne was part of the romantic movement. Writes of basic sentimental theme: virtue in distress. However, he extends this concept into a personal region. He was sensitive to every kind of feeling which affects human behavior. ... All this is getting on into the popular idea of sentimentality. The sentimentalist cries over the misfortunes, but he wants others to see him crying."

I realize that this is of little or no help to you, but I never read the book. It was one of the 21 novels in the curriculum but was not among the seven in my group's reading list.

There is a wealth of information about "sentimental novel" on the Web, and I am tempted to lose myself amid the informative Websites.

Aa wrote "He was sensitive to every kind of feeling which affects human behavior."

While that's very true, Sterne expresses these feelings in a most witty and often ribald fashion. Moreover, he detours -- digresses, actually -- along a great number of byways, generally for the purpose of unseating hobbyhorse riders. But in the end, as he acknowledges in the final line of the final volume, it's all a cock and bull story.

Supposedly, in commenting on the book, Samuel Johnson claimed it would "never last", but I would think it's at least as popular today as ever. I hope you enjoy the romp, VanillaZuella, and wish you good luck with your degree.