Tristram Shandy: An Authoritative Text, the Author on the Novel, Criticism Norton Critical Editions: Amazon.co.uk: Lj Sterne: Books

Review

Naxos audiobooks has just released an unabridged version, read by Anton Lesser with humour and brio. Lesser's light tenor is perfectly suited to the many roles (Parson Yorick, Doctor Slop, et al) who crowd Sterne's narrative. This translates into 15 CDs and about 19 hours of listening. Perfect for a wet summer. --Robert McCrum, The Observer <br/> This extraordinary novel - precursor of post-modernism by 250 years - would be an unwieldy beast in unabridged form: its 19 hours of whim and wit would be indigestible, if swallowed whole. But at a gentle pace it makes a lovely listen, as Anton Lesser brings characters and situations to life in infectiously unbuttoned style. Massive books like Sterne's don't fit modern lifestyles, but this massive audio-book may well fit in very well. --Betty Tadman, The Scotsman

As a general rule I go along with the advice that if a book doesn't grab you by the end of chapter 4, don't waste your time, there are plenty more. Yes, but not like Tristram Shandy. Nothing I've ever come across is like Sterne's extraordinary comic tour de force published 250 years ago which, I freely admit, I found pretty hard going a long way past chapter 4. And then, suddenly, I got it. Or at least I realised I was coming at it from the wrong direction. It isn't a novel. It has no plot. Chapters break off in mid-sentence because, advises the narrator, 'I would not give a groat for that man's knowledge in pen-craft who does not understand this: That the best plain narrative in the world, tacked very close to the last spirited apostrophe to my Uncle Toby, would have felt both cold and vapid upon the reader's palate; therefore I forthwith put an end to the chapter, though I was in the middle of my story.' And which story might that have been? The one about Uncle Toby's dalliance with the widow Wadman? Or his manservant Corporal Trim's tireless reconstructions of Flanders campaigns, complete with battering rams and catapults on the bowling green behind the vegetable garden? Or of Dr Slop, summoned to assist at the narrator's birth, being thrown from his horse and ... Enough. If you've ever sat spellbound listening to a witty, satirical, outrageous, digressive raconteur regaling you with endless stories about preposterous characters that lead nowhere but keep you hanging on every word, trust me they learned their craft from Sterne. So did postmodernists such as James Joyce and Flann O'Brien. It is tailor-made for audio, as is Anton Lesser's reading intelligent, humorous, charming. Dr Johnson admired the book enormously, but opined that 'nothing odd will do long'. For once he was wrong. Tristram Shandy is decidedly odd and extremely long, but it has stayed the course. --Sue Arnold, The Guardian

When I'm in London during the summer, I don't have the car. This is liberating to an extent, but does mean that I can't listen to Tristram Shandy. I bought the unabridged 15-CD set at the best possible place Shandy Hall, Laurence Sterne's home at Coxwold, in Yorkshire. On visiting, I became uncomfortably aware that I'd never managed to get through any Sterne. Anton Lesser reads Tristram to perfection. By the time I'd driven back to Ramsgate the next day, I had heard 10 CDs, but what about the remainder? My ears are the wrong shape for an iPod; the little earphones fall out. I can't expect the family to share Sterne in the car. Besides, is he suitable for children? Eventually, they may take to him more quickly than me always going off at a tangent, with no obvious beginning, middle and end, Tristram should appeal to the internet generation. --Clive Aslet, Town Mouse Country Life --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Product Description

No one description will fit this strange, eccentric, endlessly complex masterpiece. It is a fiction about fiction-writing in which the invented world is as much infused with wit and genius as the theme of inventing it. It is a joyful celebration of the infinite possibilities of the art of fiction, and a wry demonstration of its limitations. This Penguin Classic contains Christopher Ricks's introductory essay, itself a classic of English literary criticism, together with a new introduction on the recent critical history and influence of Tristram Shandy by Melvyn New. The text and notes are based on the acclaimed Florida Edition, making the scholarship of the Florida editors readily available for the first time.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

5 star

4 star

3 star

2 star

1 star

23 reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars

Write a customer review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

Very witty graphical interpretation of Sterne's classic. 12 Jun 1999

By A Customer

Format:Comic

The fragmentary structure of _TS_ is ideally suited to Rowson's comic-book reinterpretation. This accomplished editorial cartoonist pokes fun at 'heritage' illustration and costume drama, instead matching Sterne's words with his lively images and contemporary, knowing commentary. Though he shows an affectionate regard for the original, Rowson is not afraid to bring to his own work a brand of mockery not far from Sterne's.

In comparison with John Baldessari's recent photo-collages illustrating the same novel, Rowson is much funnier, more accessible, and more faithful to the original.

A very funny, very successful re-interpretation of this sometimes difficult classic. Rotund Walter Shandy is a particulary appealing figure.

Contains some (justified) obscenity.

Comment |

Was this review helpful to you?

Yes

54 of 58 people found the following review helpful

Great value for its sheer scholarly copiousness! 13 Jun 2001

By T. Gambrell

Format:Paperback

What Laurence Sterne has given us in 'Tristram Shandy' is a landmark piece of prose writing, and what Penguin have done is to re-package that in an edition of equal status. The text follows the established 'Florida' edition of Sterne's work, and the editor Melvin New is right to acknowledge the scholarly importance of Christopher Ricks introduction to the previous Penguin edition, hence it is reprinted here along with New's up to date and equally copious editor's introduction. Thus we have two critical essays by major scholars covering much of what has been written and said about 'Tristram Shandy' for the last 50 years or so. Add to that a glossary and over a hundred pages of notes and annotations to clarify the text's obscurities and references and you've already got more than your money's worth before you've got to the text proper. And what a text too. It isn't by any means to everyone's taste, and some may think it a complete waste of six hundred-odd pages, but herein lies its charm. Yes, it doesn't really get anywhere, and yes it does do odd things like printing squiggly lines and black pages, but it is just this breaking of convention and questioning of novel writing that gives it its power - and humour. It has long been established that what Postmodern authors have been praised for in the last 30 years or so Sterne was doing in the 1760s. And here it is displayed with such exuberance and wit. This is a very funny book, even now, over 300 years later, and it is easy to see how it caused such a stir in a society which was rapidly becoming affected and prudish, with its sexual innuendo. A must for scholars and lovers of Eighteenth Century writing, humour and curiosities. Incredible value and not to be missed.

35 of 38 people found the following review helpful

The funniest book ever written 29 Aug 2003

By Concerned father

The augustan enlightenment period of English literature is one of my least favourite; I do not enjoy Dr Johnson, Thomas Gray, and Defoe isn't a great novelist. Which is why I was so surprised by this 'novel', bursting at the seams with a restless comic energy - and it was written by a clergyman! This is the bawdiest of the bawdy, but not low brow in any way. Sterne reinvents the novel as a sea of possibilities, exploiting even the forms limitations. He is a master of illusion, and constantly mocks the reader in good spirit, playing with time scales and propriety. Anybody who likes Swift will be knocked out by this; Sterne outdoes the master of satire at every turn.
The central irony of the novel is that the narrator is meant to tell us his life story, but does not even get born until the fourth volume, as he digresses further and further from the starting point of his conception. This novel embodies the creative process, and is most probably the most creatively 'free' work ever written. Sterne destroys all preconceptions, and sets limits only where he can go no further.