A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy

by Laurence Sterne Narrated by LibriVox Community

Overview

After the bizarre textual antics of "Tristram Shandy", this book would seem to require a literary health warning. Sure enough, it opens in mid-conversation upon a subject never explained; meanders after a fashion through a hundred pages, then fizzles out in mid-sentence - so, a plotless novel lacking a beginning, a middle or an end. Let us say: an exercise in the infinitely comic.

"There is not a secret so aiding to the progress of sociality, as to get master of this short hand, and to be quick in rendering the several turns of looks and limbs with all their inflections and delineations, into plain words."

Sterne calls his fine sensitivity to body language (as we now term it) "translation". Much of the pleasure to be had from this wonderfully engaging book comes from his unmatched ability to extract random details from the chaos of experience to create comic turns imbued with Feeling. His Parson Yorick is the Sentimental Traveller: certainly a Man of Feeling, but one in whom "Nature has so wove her web of kindness, that some threads of love and desire are entangled with the piece..." (Summary by Martin Geeson)

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

This learned and hugely useable new Sentimental Journey provides a wealth of editorial materials that will add to the enjoyment and understanding of readers of all kinds. The approachable introduction is wisely informative not only on A Sentimental Journey but also on Sterne himself, the rise of the novel, travel literature, sensibility, genre, gender, and the work’s influence and afterlife. The explanatory footnotes are thorough and discreetly scholarly. The text is accompanied by an outstandingly rich and pertinent selection of contextualising contemporary documentation. Turner’s edition of A Sentimental Journey will make Sterne’s second novel many new friends.” — Marcus Walsh, University of Liverpool

“Katherine Turner’s comprehensive and superbly written introduction, together with the rich contextual materials, make this the most useful edition of Sterne’s Sentimental Journey in print today. Highly recommended for specialists, students, and general readers—anyone who might enjoy Sterne’s irreverent brilliance.” — James G. Basker, Barnard College, Columbia University

James G. Basker Barnard College

"Katherine Turner's comprehensive and superbly written introduction, together with the rich contextual materials, make this the most useful edition of Sterne's Sentimental Journey in print today. Highly recommended for specialists, students, and general readers--anyone who might enjoy Sterne's irreverent brilliance."

Marcus Walsh University of Liverpool

"This learned and hugely useable new Sentimental Journey provides a wealth of editorial materials that will add to the enjoyment and understanding of readers of all kinds. The approachable introduction is wisely informative not only on A Sentimental Journey but also on Sterne himself, the rise of the novel, travel literature, sensibility, genre, gender, and the work's influence and afterlife. The explanatory footnotes are thorough and discreetly scholarly. The text is accompanied by an outstandingly rich and pertinent selection of contextualising contemporary documentation. Turner's edition of A Sentimental Journey will make Sterne's second novel many new friends."

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169393415
Publisher:	LibriVox
Publication date:	08/25/2014

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