# Talk:A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy

User:Stbalbach judged the following to be unworthy of the article. However, it is possible that some readers of both authors might find it interesting that Nabokov referred to Sterne's starling in his Lolita. It is my opinion that it should have a place in the article. This opinion is especially strengthened when I see so many Wikipedia articles filled with trivial references to popular culture without complaint from User:Stbalbach as to the prudent use of article space. 

In Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, Part Two, §25, the following lines occur:
Where are you hiding, Dolores Haze?
Why are you hiding, darling?
(I talk in a daze, I walk in a maze,
I cannot get out, said the starling).
This is a reference to the following sentence in A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, "The Passport, the Hotel De Paris." 

"… and looking up, I saw it was a starling hung in a little cage. – 'I can't get out – I can't get out,' said the starling."
Lestrade (talk) 21:43, 9 December 2009 (UTC)Lestrade
--—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Lestrade (talk • contribs) .

You are right, many Wikipedia articles are filled with trivia. That's not a good reason to break new ground with a trivia section here. It is not clear that the reference your quoting is indeed a derivative or just coincidence. Even if it is, it is just simple literary analysis, if you were to go through Lolita or any other similar work that has many cultural references (say for example The Picture of Dorian Gray) you would litter Wikipedia with 100's of cross references - think of the number of cross references in all of literature it would be millions - that is why we have a "notability" clause, there has to be a good reason for it. This just seems like a weak link at best and not even that notable or important in either work. If you are serious about finding connections in Lolita or SJ, then why not find other similar cross references and create an article for it, like List of cultural references in The Picture of Dorian Gray. -- Stbalbach 02:59, 23 November 2006 (UTC)
I wouldn't want to litter this Wikipedia article with 100s of literary cross-references, "coincidental" or not. But if I find any mention of this book by Bart Simpson, in a Matrix film, or in a rap "song" by 50 Cent, I'm sure that such references will be acceptable.Lestrade 17:23, 30 November 2006 (UTC)Lestrade
@Stbalbach It is a much more important reference than it seems. The spark for Nabokov to write Lolita came from a news story about a monkey who drew the bars of his prison. It was the first recorded charcoal illustration of an animal. Nabokov explained that H.H. It is similar to that monkey in captivity who writes/draws his prison but does not understand it.Sterne's starling does not understand his imprisonment either, yet he denounces it. You can read the rest of the details in the annotated edition of Lolita edited by Alfred Appel.I omit the page number because I have the book in Epub. 2806:105E:1C:A0E4:1051:6127:A15C:B9A6 (talk) 09:57, 10 April 2024 (UTC)

I just added a plot summary, but I wonder if I got the locations right. In the novel the town Montriul is mentioned, but Wikipedia knows only about Montreuil, and I assume that Montreuil, Pas-de-Calais is meant because it is so close to Calais. Moulines is also mentioned in the novel, but there are two towns of that name in Normandy. Also, considering Yorick travels from Paris to Moulines merely to see Maria and then to Lyon, he must have made a huge detour? Isn't that strange? AlexanderVanLoon (talk) 20:43, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

I can't find much info on the sequel/continuation (what should we call it?) to A Sentimental Journey by John Hall-Stevenson. Hopefully anyone could study it further, and create a separate article for it? AlexanderVanLoon (talk) 20:43, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

I just added a plot summary to the article. I think I've done a nice job, but I'm sure it can use improvement, I'd like to hear comments or criticism. AlexanderVanLoon (talk) 20:43, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

Notice that articles of other books, for example Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded and The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling have an image of the title page of the first edition. I think this article should get one, too. AlexanderVanLoon (talk) 19:45, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

The mystery of what Yorick grabs at the end of the book is an artefact of modern censorship (btw the public domain, Gutenberg, on-line version is censored). I have given clue as to what it is he grabs in the article...Colin4C (talk) 21:06, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

I strongly disagree with the notion that the mystery is 'an artefact of modern censorship', and in fact believe that Hyde is simply misinformed. The OUP edited version of A Sentimental Journey - dating from 2003 and therefore much more recently than Hyde's work - makes no remarks about such a conclusion, despite working from the first and second editions (page xxxiv of the version cited in the article text). The text comments further that 'some early editions left less room for the reader's warm imagination by inserting a dash between "Chambre's" and "END"', but there is no repetition of Hyde's claim (p. 246, footnote for p. 104). I have manually checked the editions of the text available on Eighteenth Century Collections Online, and can see no evidence of Hyde's assertion there, either.
Hyde's assertion is demonstrably untrue, and I have removed it from the article. If any evidence can be presented to the contrary, then perhaps it can be re-added, but I think the practice should be to take recent scholarship at face value, and not accuse it of perpetuating any sort of censorship. 109.224.152.101 (talk) 14:37, 1 April 2011 (UTC)
I tried to add this to the article because there are more interpretations possible than just omission:
"The sentence is open to intepretation. You can say the last word is omitted, or that he stretched out HIS hand, and caught HERS (this would be gramatically correct). Another interpretation is that you incorporate 'End of Vol. II' into the sentence, so that he grabs the Fille de Chambre's 'End'."
It was flagged as vandalism and removed... Vandalism?!?! I just think there is more than one interpretation possible; that's why this last sentence is fun and witty!  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Izabella.moi (talk • contribs) 12:08, 15 December 2009 (UTC) 

As a result of the Yorkshire Network GLAMwiki Project there are now the first (of hopefully many) donated images from the Laurence Sterne Trust available on Commons: Category:Images from the Laurence Sterne Trust. I hope that they will be useful for illustrating articles related to Sterne and his works. If there are particular topics that you would like to see more of you may want to search the trust's online collections and contact me with requests. You may also find useful resources on the trust's Sterneana pages. Thanks! PatHadley (talk) 14:33, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

That's great news. As you've seen, I've used some of the images here and for Laurence Sterne himself. All the best, Chiswick Chap (talk) 16:38, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
Thanks! Cracking work. I see from your profile that you're keen on Natural History - there'll potentially be more stuff coming from York Museums Trust too. You might find useful stuff on their new online collecion too. I've already transferred a few images to commons here: Category:Images from the York Museums Trust Online Collection. Is there anything in particular that you'd like me to look into? PatHadley (talk) 18:29, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Noting these links here for future exploration of the many images available of this novel: Yorick and the Monk (here also?); Fleur's horse spooked by the dead ass; many not-clearly-organized leads here. ~ L 🌸 (talk) 01:30, 13 January 2025 (UTC)