book data
862 ratings, 4.02 average rating, 145 reviews
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published
March 2nd 1998
by Oxford University Press, USA
binding
Paperback, 626 pages
setting
Unknown
isbn
0192834703
(isbn13: 9780192834706)
description
Completely reset to reproduce Sterne's spelling and punctuation in an unmodernized form.
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1641)
Read in March, 2008
To be honest, I never heard of this book before the film came out last year. My wife heard an NPR report on the film, and they used the terms Post-Modern and Unfilmable so many times that she knew I would be interested. We saw the film and liked it. I finally picked upthe book and read it, expecting a challenging work that would yield some intellectual dividends if I could just plow through it somehow. In actuality, the book was a very fun read. It did indeed have the foreshadowings of postmode...more
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Read in July, 2008
I am shocked at the drastic change of my opinion on The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne. After I read it a mere three years ago, I swore I would take my MA Exam without rereading it to avoid undergoing such torture a second time. I gave it one star on goodreads. Having forgotten everything about the novel (aside from my distaste for it), I had to reread it for the exam. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. I wrote "ha!" in the margins more than I have in any...more
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Read in October, 2005
recommends it for:
Only the hardcore literates
Each time I read this novel (and yes, I have slogged through it more than once) I am struck by the brilliance of Sterne. Many have recognized his writing as far before its time and indeed a great deal of the novel focuses on the purpose of language and literature and Sterne uses black pages, marbled pages, and squiggly lines to show how words sometimes cannot explain what you need to explain.
Additionally, the novel is Tristram's attempt to tell his life story while still living his life, a fac...more
Additionally, the novel is Tristram's attempt to tell his life story while still living his life, a fac...more
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Read in April, 2007
recommends it for:
self-loving rhetorical theorists
The fundamental failing of Tristram Shandy is exactly what makes it great literature. It attempts to reflect the chaotic nature of art and the impossibility of controlling it, much in the same way "life" cannot be controlled (as art mirrors life, blah blah). To do so, however, Sterne uses constant diversions from his main storyline; this wouldn't be a problem if the diversions weren't SO DAMN BORING. I appreciated what he's trying to do after seeing the 2006 film adaptation with Rob Br...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
—
Read in December, 2008
recommends it for:
English majors. 18th c. fanatics.
I'd been meaning to sink my teeth into Tristram Shandy for some time now, and especially after a friend wrote her senior thesis on the beast. I definitely have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it's definitely hilarious at times, and volumes could be (and have been) written about the narrative voice. The blank/black/marbled pages are also interesting if only as snapshots of a time when novels didn't have as defined rules as they do now. And the book's reputation as a postmodernism precur...more
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Read in July, 2008
This novel was ended before it was done. And it was ended when it was supposed to be done. I love that! Shandy said he would publish two volumes every year until he died, and he did almost that.
People asked me the other day why I was reading something I found so hard. My response was that it was filled with dirty jokes. Which it is, but besides that, it's a work of art.
I'm at a loss for words.
People asked me the other day why I was reading something I found so hard. My response was that it was filled with dirty jokes. Which it is, but besides that, it's a work of art.
I'm at a loss for words.
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I watched the documentary by Steve Coogan (of "I'm Alan Partridge" fame)and it was fantastically British. Not for those who do not appreciate a sarcastic Brit's humor...
I did find it hysterically funny, and wish that more people would read it. I suppose that seeing the film first did give me a headstart on what all the fuss is about, and it did give me some background information to go on.
I did find it hysterically funny, and wish that more people would read it. I suppose that seeing the film first did give me a headstart on what all the fuss is about, and it did give me some background information to go on.
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don't read this unless youre ready to be confused. this is an incredibly hilarious novel, but it takes a little getting used to. read up on it briefly before getting into it. i hated it and then thought it was one of the funniest most brilliant books ever. it makes no sense. its awesome. and also dirty.
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This would be a good read for Jill's book club. It is not easy reading, because the plotline follows Tristram's thought lines.
This is a great book for those who like satire and irony.
He devotes a page or two to baptism by "squirting".
He denotes a chapter on his conception. His father was in his 50's and of regular habits. It was his habit to wind the clock the first Sunday of the month and to also take care of his conubial duties to his wife on the same regular basis. T...more
This is a great book for those who like satire and irony.
He devotes a page or two to baptism by "squirting".
He denotes a chapter on his conception. His father was in his 50's and of regular habits. It was his habit to wind the clock the first Sunday of the month and to also take care of his conubial duties to his wife on the same regular basis. T...more
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I feel like this is a book you can spend years reading, picking up and leaving off at any page in any volume, and lose nothing in the process. Sterne is brilliant-- he redefined literary narration.
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This book lies exactly at the place where Nothing meets Everything, they become best friends and lough at themselves and eachother. It s a bar, called "life"? I think...
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Even though I can't claim to understand this book entirely, I think it's very funny. I love all the random ramblings in it.
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I've tried at least twice, perhaps thrice, but never at a good time. I will try again.
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Read in October, 2008
recommended to Rachel by:
Chris Mayo
I don't give many books five stars. But oh my god, if ever a book deserved 5 (or more), this would be it.
I could not stop laughing while reading this. Even though most of my reading is done in the early morning hours while I commute to work via train, and I'm usually too sleepy to really appreciate a good book, I could NOT stop laughing.
This is not an easy book, and I found myself wishing for my English teacher so he could explain some of the jokes (I totally missed the first joke about ...more
I could not stop laughing while reading this. Even though most of my reading is done in the early morning hours while I commute to work via train, and I'm usually too sleepy to really appreciate a good book, I could NOT stop laughing.
This is not an easy book, and I found myself wishing for my English teacher so he could explain some of the jokes (I totally missed the first joke about ...more
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Read in October, 2008
Fully titled The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gent., Sterne’s classic novel of the late 18th Century is, or would be, the autobiographical tale of a young English gentlemen but it famously struggles to keep to a point. Any point. So instead it is most accurate when responding to questions about what the book is about to say it is about nine volumes and many, many chapters long. There is a lot that is funny and much to admire—a post-modern novel written before the American Revolution...more
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What can be said about this book that hasn't already been said by a bunch of people who can't finish this thing. I started 'Shandy' in earnest last summer got distracted by worldly concerns and other books and picked it up again this summer. Sterne's prose style is unbelievable and reminds you of how poorly current day novelists write. These cats from the 18th and 19th century write the best English ever written and with such subtlety, humanity, and grace, that it always gives a reader perspe...more
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I read this book during a time of peculiar depression and loneliness, and perhaps foremost for that reason I have a strong affection for it. Having read in various sources on the history of narrative that it ranks as an important work, I was of course curious, but I did not expect it to be so hilarious. I had a good time with it when nothing else was very amusing to me. It requires some patience, but it is quite worth the effort.
While I was reading this, and having just read some Shakespe...more
While I was reading this, and having just read some Shakespe...more
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There are very few books that I really, really, really dislike, but this is one. Granted, I haven't read it in a few years. Correction: I have never actually made it all the way through this book. I was assigned to read a portion of it in a British novels course, and even the professor had trouble justifying its value to us.
I tried valiantly. I read a lot more than the assigned bits, but I still found it to be the most effective sleep aid I've ever discovered.
Part of my dislike fo...more
I tried valiantly. I read a lot more than the assigned bits, but I still found it to be the most effective sleep aid I've ever discovered.
Part of my dislike fo...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommended to John by:
Ted Hoaglandrecommends it for: Classics readers, humor readers, literary readers
A novel from the 1700's, a fictional memoir of a man with an unexceptional life and a rambling style, weighing it at over 700 pages and taking more than 200 simply to reach his birth, and frequently diverting not only from linear narrative but from the English language itself. If that doesn't scare you off, then congratulations and pick up this classic book. If you liked Jonathan Swift's Tale of a Tub then this is a prime candidate for your collection, though Mr. Sandy's narrative is a li...more
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Read in June, 2008
Reading this book was definitely a slow-going process and there were times where, tired, head full of German, and reading on the metro, I had absolutely no idea what was going on and had to go back and reread the last few pages, what with all of the jumping between characters and between time periods and extended metaphors and writing in French and Latin. Despite all that, it's a very funny read, though in a particularly subtle way. But subtle's okay because it just makes you feel like an insi...more
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