Laurence Sterne was an English author, novelist, and cleric who was born in November 1713 and died in March 1768. His first successful novel was titled The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman which was published in nine volumes from 1759 to 1767. The novel appears to be a lengthy biography of the titular character Tristam Shandy. The novel is known for its degression, double entendre, and graphic devices. Tristam Shandy appears to be a sarcastic take on the style of novel writing pointing out the sham of the imposition of reality upon the distinctly unrealistic nature of the novel.
Laurence Sterne used Tristam Shandy in part as a way to expose the inescapable reality that novels simply could not be realistic. Tristram Shandy shuns, evades, challenges, and parodies conventions of realistic expectations in several creative and entertaining ways. German Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer mentioned Tristram Shandy in his essay titled "On the Comparative Place of Interest and Beauty in Works of Art" as one of "the four immortal romances." The other three mentioned in the essay are Don Quixote, La Novelle Heloise, and Wilhelm Meister. In Tristram Shandy, Corporal Trim’s brother Tom describes the oppression of a black servant in a sausage shop in Lisbon that he visited. This episode is inspired by a letter Laurence Sterne received from a black man, the composer, and former slave Ignatius Sancho. Sterne’s reply to Ignatius Sancho became an integral part of 18th-century abolitionist literature.
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