(Book III, Chapters XXII and XXIII)Īs its title suggests, the book is ostensibly Tristram's narration of his life story. Unfortunately, they turn out to have been Walter's great-grandfather's. 'The Jack-boots Transformed into Mortars': Trim has found an old pair of jack-boots useful as mortars. While the use of the narrative technique of stream of consciousness is usually associated with modernist novelists, Tristram Shandy has been suggested as a precursor. Arthur Schopenhauer called Tristram Shandy one of 'the four immortal romances.' Many of his similes, for instance, are reminiscent of the works of the metaphysical poets of the 17th century, and the novel as a whole, with its focus on the problems of language, has constant regard for John Locke's theories in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.
Sterne had read widely, which is reflected in Tristram Shandy. Its style is marked by digression, double entendre, and graphic devices. It purports to be a biography of the eponymous character. It was published in nine volumes, the first two appearing in 1759, and seven others following over the next seven years (vols. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, also known as Tristram Shandy, is a novel by Laurence Sterne.
