Laurence Sterne

Biography

Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) was an Anglo-Irish novelist and clergyman whose masterpiece, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, is one of the most innovative and influential novels in Western literature. Born in Clonmel, Ireland, Sterne was educated at Cambridge and served as a Church of England clergyman in Yorkshire for most of his life. Tristram Shandy, published in nine volumes between 1759 and 1767, defied every convention of the emerging novel form—its digressive structure, typographic experiments (blank pages, marbled pages, squiggly lines), self-conscious narration, and philosophical comedy made it the most radical work of fiction of its era. Sterne’s other major work, A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768), pioneered the literature of sensibility. Though initially dismissed by some contemporaries (Samuel Johnson declared “Nothing odd will do long”), Sterne’s influence has been immense—his narrative techniques anticipated the experiments of modernist and postmodern fiction by two centuries, influencing writers from Diderot to James Joyce to Thomas Pynchon.