Laurence Sterne

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman is a humorous novel by Laurence Sterne. It was published in nine volumes, the first two appearing in 1759, and seven others following over the next seven years. Probably Sterne's most enduring work, it purports to be a biography of the eponymous character. Its style …

Sterne's utterly original novel—the meandering, maddening "autobiography" of one of literature's oldest comic characters, with an introduction by Tom McCarthy Doomed to become the "sport of fortune" by an interruption at the crucial moment of conception, Tristram Shandy’s life lurches from one mishap to another: his …