Laurence Sterne

**Laurence Sterne** (24 November 1713 – 18 March 1768) was an Anglo-Irish novelist and Anglican cleric. He wrote the novels _The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman_ and _A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy_. He also published many  sermons and memoir<nowiki/>s. Many people in his family were in the military. Because of this, he traveled in Ireland and England. One of his uncles paid for Sterne to go to the Hipperholme Grammar School in the West Riding of Yorkshire. He went to Jesus College, Cambridge on a sizarship. In that college, he got bachelor's and master's degrees. In 1741, he married Elizabeth Lumley.

His satire _A Political Romance_ made the church angry. The book was burnt. Sterne had tuberculosis, so he moved to France. He wrote about his travels to France in _A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy_. This book was published a few weeks before he died. He also wrote _Journal to Eliza_, which was about his romantic feelings for Eliza Draper. This was published after he died. Sterne died in 1768 and was buried at St George's, Hanover Square. His body was stolen and sold to anatomists at Cambridge University. His body was then found and brought back.

## Books

- 1743 – _The Unknown World: Verses Occasioned by Hearing a Pass-Bell_ (disputed, possibly written by Hubert Stogdon)
- 1747 – _The Case of Elijah and the Widow of Zerephath_
- 1750 – _The Abuses of Conscience_
- 1759 – _A Political Romance_
- 1759 – _Tristram Shandy_ vols. 1 and 2
- 1760 – _The Sermons of Mr. Yorick_ vol. 1 and 2
- 1761 – _Tristram Shandy_ vols. 3–6
- 1765 – _Tristram Shandy_ vols. 7 and 8
- 1766 – _The Sermons of Mr. Yorick_ vols. 3 and 4
- 1767 – _Tristram Shandy_ vol. 9
- 1768 – _A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy_
- 1769 – _Sermons by the Late Rev. Mr. Sterne_ vols. 5–7 (a continuation of _The Sermons of Mr. Yorick_)

## Further reading

- René Bosch, _Labyrinth of Digressions: Tristram Shandy as Perceived and Influenced by Sterne's Early Imitators_ (Amsterdam, 2007)
- W. M. Thackeray, in _English Humourists of the Eighteenth Century_ (London, 1853; new edition, New York, 1911)
- Percy Fitzgerald, _Life of Laurence Sterne_ (London, 1864; second edition, London, 1896)
- Paul Stapfer, _Laurence Sterne, sa personne et ses ouvrages_ (second edition, Paris, 1882)
- H. D. Traill, _Laurence Sterne_, "English Men of Letters", (London, 1882)
- Texte, _Rousseau et le cosmopolitisme littôraire au XVIIIème siècle_ (Paris, 1895)
- H. W. Thayer, _Laurence Sterne in Germany_ (New York, 1905)
- P. E. More, _Shelburne Essays_ (third series, New York, 1905)
- L. S. Benjamin, _Life and Letters_ (two volumes, 1912)
- Rousseau, George S. (2004). _Nervous Acts: Essays on Literature, Culture and Sensibility._ Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

## Other websites

- Tristram Shandy (beta) _In Our Time_ – BBC Radio 4
- Laurence Sterne at the Google Books Search
- "Tristram Shandy". Annotated, with bibliography, criticism.
- Ron Schuler's Parlour Tricks: The Scrapbook Mind of Laurence Sterne
- _The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy_ & _A Sentimental Journey_. Munich: Edited by Günter Jürgensmeier, 2005
- The Shandean: A Journal Devoted to the Works of Laurence Sterne (tables of contents available online)
- Laurence Sterne at the National Portrait Gallery, London
- The Laurence Sterne Trust
- Anonymous parodies of the kinds of letters written by Elizabeth Draper to Laurence Sterne (as Yorick), MSS SC 4, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University

## Infobox (writer)

- **honorific prefix**: The Reverend
- **name**: Laurence Sterne
- **image**: Laurence Sterne by Sir Joshua Reynolds.jpg
- **caption**: Portrait by Joshua Reynolds, Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1760
- **birth place**: Clonmel, Ireland
- **death place**: London, England
- **occupation**: Novelist, clergyman
- **nationality**: British
- **alma mater**: Jesus College, Cambridge
- **notableworks**: _The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman_
_A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy_
_A Political Romance_
- **spouse**: Elizabeth Lumley