Lmst

Tristram Shandy … Unglücksrabe oder Von der Bahre bis zur Wiege – Von Laurence Sterne

Laurence Sternes „Tristram Shandy“ revolutionierte den Roman: Ein Werk voller Abschweifungen, Wortspiele und radikaler Erzählexperimente. Statt einer geordneten Biografie bietet es ein labyrinthisches Spiel mit Form und Lesererwartung.

Der Ich-Erzähler Tristram will sein Leben schildern – doch er wird ständig unterbrochen, etwa durch seinen pedantischen Vater Walter oder den kriegsbesessenen Onkel Toby. Mit schwarzen Seiten, fehlenden Kapiteln und verspäteten Vorworten brach Sterne alle Konventionen. Goethe pries ihn als „schönsten Geist“, Nietzsche als „freiesten Schriftsteller“. Lessing wollte für ein weiteres Buch von Sterne sogar “fünf Jahre seines Lebens” opfern.

https://www.swr.de/swrkultur/hoerspiel/tristram-shandy-ungluecksrabe-oder-von-der-bahre-bis-zur-wiege-1-2-hoerspiel-2025-11-02-100.html

#bucher #horspiel #laurenceSterne #literatur #roman #swrKultur #tristramShandy

"I take a simple view of life. It is keep your eyes open and get on with it." On his birthday, 10 Laurence Sterne Quotes:

https://topicaltens.blogspot.com/2025/11/24-november-laurence-sterne-quotes.html

#Quotes #LaurenceSterne #BirthAnniversary

Literarischer #24November

„Was für eine große Menge an Abenteuern kann in seinem kleinen Leben von dem ergriffen werden, der sein Herz für alles interessiert.“

#LaurenceSterne Geburt 1713

Über das Recht, sein Steckenpferd zu reiten – oder: Die Höflichkeit der Vernunft – Von Onkel Michael

Es gibt Sätze, die auf den ersten Blick unscheinbar wirken und doch ein ganzes Weltbild tragen. Einer davon stammt aus Laurence Sternes Tristram Shandy:

Solange ein Mensch sein Steckenpferd friedlich und ohne Aufsehen auf des Königs Landstraße reitet und weder Sie noch mich zwingt, hinter ihm aufzusitzen – ei, mein Herr –, was geht es dann uns beide an?

Ein Satz, so leicht wie Tee mit Milch, und doch schwer wie ein moralischer Grundstein.

https://onkelmichael.blog/2025/11/06/von-steckenpferden-toleranz-und-anderen-fixen-ideen/

#artikel #laurenceSterne #onkelMichael #tristramShandy #vernunft #wissen #zitat

Useless quote for 9 November:

"Hail, ye small, sweet courtesies of life, for smooth do ye make the road of it!"

Laurence Sterne, in "A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy" (1768)

#UselessQuote #LaurenceSterne

Ich hab die über 800 Seiten des #TristramShandy von #LaurenceSterne ja damals zwischen 24. Dezember 1995 und Ende Januar 1996 quasi weggeatmet – um dann 2 Monate Pause zu machen, weil ich mit dem einzigen abschweifungsfrei erzähltem „Kapitel“ nichts anfangen konnte,¹ aber zeitgenössische Lesys mussten mit einem Veröffentlichungszeitraum von 1759 bis 1767 klarkommen!

—
¹ Endspurt dann 31.3.-5.4.1996

Gibt es eigentlich eine Korrelation, ob #TristramShandy¹ von #LaurenceSterne vor allem von ADHS-lys geschätzt wird?

—
¹ »Leben und Ansichten von Tristram Shandy, Gentleman«, Org englisch »The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman«

"Feel it, said she."

The most erotic scene in all of literature.

#LaurenceSterne #SentimentalJourney #flirtation #ThePulse

Literarischer #18März

„Für zehn Witze hast du hundert Feinde.“

#LaurenceSterne #LebenUndAnsichtenVonTristramShandyGentleman Tod 1768

Literarischer #24November

„Die Geschichte der Wunde eines Soldaten täuscht über den damit verbundenen Schmerz hinweg.“

#LaurenceSterne #LebenUndAnsichtenVonTristramShandyGentleman Geburt 1713

Joseph Wright of Derby -- Maria and her Dog Silvio -- oil on canvas -- illustrating Sterne's 'Sentimental Journey'. The model was Mrs Richard Bassano. I W.pinxt, 1781 -- Derby Museum and Art Gallery -- Public domain.

I've just finished "A Sentimental Journey". Charming work, half novel, half travel literature, all infused with both a playful flirtatiousness and an irony that can leave the reader guessing yet not frustrated. The Maria episode that comes towards the end of the book and was foreshadowed in "Tristram Shandy" captured the imagination of readers and artists.

>>When we had got within half a league of Moulines, at a little opening in the road leading to a thicket, I discovered poor Maria sitting under a poplar. She was sitting with her elbow in her lap, and her head leaning on one side within her hand:—a small brook ran at the foot of the tree...

She was dress’d in white, and much as my friend described her, except that her hair hung loose, which before was twisted within a silk net.—She had superadded likewise to her jacket, a pale green riband, which fell across her shoulder to the waist; at the end of which hung her pipe.

Her goat had been as faithless as her lover; and she had got a little dog in lieu of him, which she had kept tied by a string to her girdle: as I looked at her dog, she drew him towards her with the string.—“Thou shalt not leave me, Sylvio,” said she.<<

#LaurenceSterne #ASentimentalJourney #BritishLiterature #JosephWright #BritishArt #Art #Literature

I've just finished Laurence Sterne's "Tristram Shandy", which came to me strongly recommended and which I know enjoys a cult following.

That cult won't count me as follower, I'm afraid. On the whole, I did not enjoy the almost 600 pages of rambling digressions, learned satire, and bawdy wordplay. At times I felt I was stuck with the Georgian equivalent of that tiresome elderly relative who insists on re-enacting sketch after sketch of Monty Python. Readers who enjoy "Don Quixote", Rabelais, and postmodern metafictionality will probably derive more pleasure from the book than I did.

Nevertheless, it wasn't all a joyless slog. Like so many readers down the years, I was taken with Uncle Toby, who combines an eccentric passion for military fortifications with a winning kindness; after catching a fly, he releases it saying "I'll not hurt thee, go, poor devil, get thee gone, why should I hurt thee? —This world surely is wide enough to hold both thee and me".

As well as enjoying some of Sterne's play with ideas about determinism, I was charmed by the narrator's encounter in rural Languedoc with a young woman who has him join a dance with her companions. This delightful pastoral scene made me think I might enjoy Sterne's "A Sentimental Journey".

#Books #Bookstodon #TristramShandy
#LiteratureInEnglish #Literature
#LaurenceSterne #18thCenturyLiterature

Image:Laurence Sterne -- Sir Joshua Reynolds -- 1760 -- National Portrait Gallery, London -- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

Sterne is depicted seated with is right elbow resting on a sheaf of papers which have placed on a piece of wooden furniture, possibly a sideboard. The index finger of his right hand is extended and rests upon his forehead, while is placed on his hip. Beneath his black clerical robe the cuffs and collar of a white garment are visible. He wears a wig and and has a slight smile.

The National Portrait Gallery notes:

"Dark brown eyes, white wig slightly askew, pale complexion; white shirt and cuffs, black gown, knee breeches and stockings; a small ring on the fifth finger on his left hand; on the table a silver standish, quill pen and sheaf of writing paper, the uppermost lettered and [opin]ions/[o]f/Tristram Shandy; red tablecloth, red curtain drawn back behind his left arm, plain brown background; lit from left.

More than just a good likeness, Reynolds's portrait is full of energy and wit. Cloaked in his church gown, Sterne's twisting, dynamic figure and sardonic expression reveal the writer’s active mind. Reynolds's intention in painting this portrait, which was not commissioned, was to cash in on Sterne's popularity with the sale of mezzotint engravings after the original."

"Respect for ourselves guides our morals, respect for others guides our manners." — Laurence Sterne — — — #LaurenceSterne #quote #quotes #respect #morals #manners #choices #ideals

Literarischer #18März

„I begin with writing the first sentence—and trusting to Almighty God for the second.”

#LaurenceSterne #TheLifeAndOpinionsOfTristramShandyGentleman Tod 1768

@johncarlosbaez @RanaldClouston @bookstodon

Bravo, thanks for the link! A great piece by Jess Keiser on Sterne and Tristram Shandy, and on the more anarchic elements in 18th century literature. Encourages me to re-read Swift and Fielding with open eyes (and, of course, to go back to Sterne).

#LaurenceSterne #TristramShandy #HenryFielding #JonathanSwift #literature #modernism #JessKeiser

#FinishedReading my first foray into 18th century literature, although I doubt much of the rest of it reads like this, with its twisted structure, absurd digressions, and typographical jokes. Some of it is incredibly quotable, fresh, and fun; other parts border on incomprehensible as the centuries render the jokes obscure. #Bookstodon @bookstodon #TristramShandy #LaurenceSterne

A page from Tristram Shandy, in which the author describes the progress of the story in various chapters diagrammatically, with meandering looping lines

#DanielDefoe
#SamuelRichardson
#HenryFielding
#TobiasSmollett
#LaurenceSterne
#SamuelJacksonPratt
#CharlotteSmith
#JaneAusten
#WalterScott

How did British novelists respond to the challenge of war during the long eighteenth century?

I discuss this in my book, just out,,,

Literarischer #24November

„Nirgends strapaziert sich der Mensch so sehr, wie bei der Jagd nach Erholung.“

#LaurenceSterne Geburt 1713

"And in that moment, replied I, most willingly would I say something very civil to you for all these courtesies. Any one may do a casual act of good nature, but a continuation of them shows it is a part of the temperature; and certainly, added I, if it is the same blood which comes from the heart which descends to the extremes (touching her wrist) I am sure you must have one of the best pulses of any woman in the world.—Feel it, said she, holding out her arm."

#LaurenceSterne #ThePulse

‘The motly emblem of my work.’ Colourful marbled page from the first edition of Laurence Sterne’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy (1759–67) — these were unique in each copy, representing the element of chance in Sterne’s narrative project. #LaurenceSterne #TristramShandy #books #publishing

#LaurenceSterne

Client Info