About the Reading for Monday: Excerpts from Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy

Unlike any other Great Novel, Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy is best taught piecemeal, rather than in its entirety. You should, of course, read the entire thing during your lifetime, but reading some excerpts now will not give you a distorted or inaccurate view of the whole. The three excerpts for you to print out and read for Monday are in the sidebar.

One of the reasons it works to read excerpts of this novel is that it has no linear, coherent plot. It does, however, have strong, central characters. You'll need to know a little bit about them to make sense of these excerpts.

Tristram Shandy is the narrator of this novel, whose full title is The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. "Gentleman" signifies "land-owning"--the land in question is centered around Shandy Hall, where Tristram's father, Sir Walter Shandy, lives and ineffectually manages his large estate. Sir Walter has strong and eccentric opinions and spends most of his time buried in abstruse research to confirm his old views and develop new ones. Sir Walter has taken in his younger brother (Tristram's beloved Uncle Toby), a former military officer who has retired from active service due to injuries sustained in battle. Uncle Toby, aided by his sidekick, Corporal Trim, spends his time building miniature military fortifications in one of the gardens of Shandy Hall, which has been dedicated to the purpose. Tristram is largely raised by his mother, with the help of the household servants. Mrs. Shandy makes only a few appearances in the novel (she spends substantial parts of the first few volumes giving birth to Tristram), but she is clearly the only person in the household with a lick of common sense. Parson Yorick is the local vicar (he is also the narrator of Sterne's only other novel, A Sentimental Journey); Doctor Slop is the doctor whom Sir Walter has hired for the birth of Tristram, even though Mrs. Shandy has insisted on being attended by a midwife. Susannah and Obadiah are servants.

Oddly enough, a movie has been made of this novel. Here's the trailer:



[My professional opinion: It's pretty good. There was a bit too much Steven-Coogan-playing-himself for my taste, but they did about as well as anyone could translating this novel to film. Can't take the place of reading the whole thing, though.]