The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman: Laurence Sterne

`L-d! said my mother, what is all this story about? - A Cock and a Bull, said Yorick - And one of the best of its kind, I ever heard`

Laurence Sterne`s great masterpiece of bawdy humour and rich satire defies any attempt to categorize it, with a rich metafictional narrative that might classify it as the first `postmodern` novel. Part novel, part digression, its gloriously disordered narrative interweaves the birth and life of the unfortunate `hero` Tristram Shandy, the eccentric philosophy of his father Walter, the amours and military obsessions of Uncle Toby, and a host of other characters, including Dr Slop, Corporal Trim and the parson Yorick. A joyful celebration of the endless possibilities of the art of fiction, Tristram Shandy is also a wry demonstration of its limitations.

The text and notes of this volume are based on the acclaimed Florida Edition, with a critical introduction by Melvyn New and Christopher Ricks`s introductory essay from the first Penguin Classics edition.