Well, I've finished it! I am now quite well-acquainted with the life and opinions of Tristram Shandy, and not without a deal of enjoyment in the process, I must say.
It's a book which defies description (you'd be better to read this than wait for me to explain it), labyrinthine in its narrative - "...if it is to be a digression [remember this?], it must be a good frisky one, and upon a frisky subject too..." - frisky it is and full of freshness and lively humour as well as an extraordinary amount of learning and very rich language.
Sarah said in her comment the other day that she'd started the book twice but not got very far with it; I took the 'head down and fifty pages at a time' approach and that worked well for me, so if you're considering reading it don't be put off by the length or the apparent complexity*, just have a go.
As is the way of reading paths crossing, Laurence Sterne and his Yorkshire home, Shandy Hall, cropped up in Madeleine Bunting's book The Plot: A Biography of an English Acre which I read last month. I looked up the house at the time (website here and you can see the study where much of the book was written) but that brief mention did bring Sterne to mind and I'm glad I've now read his most famous work. As to working methods, here's a passage which explains them and offers an interesting theory on the nature of the creative process:
"... of all the several ways of beginning a book which are now in practice throughout the known world, I am confident my own way of doing it is the best - I'm sure it is the most religious - for I begin with writing the first sentence - and trusting to Almighty God for the second.
"I wish you saw me half starting out of my chair, with what confidence, as I grasp the elbow of it, I look up - catching the idea, even sometimes before it halfway reaches me - I believe in my conscience I intercept many a thought which heaven intended for another man."
(* you can skip bits - but don't tell anyone I said that).
I've not only read this but attempted to teach it a number of times to disaffected undergraduates, few of whom ever got the point. I think it is a wonderful book, terribly funny in places and also very touching -- Uncle Toby, my goodness. Very glad you enjoyed it.
Posted by: Harriet | 04 November 2009 at 09:30 AM
Thanks for your report which has encouraged me to try Tristram Shandy again, this time doing it your way. I'm sure it's a box of delights if I can only unlock it. The quotes you give are serendipitous for me - I'm doing that feat of literary daftness known as NaNoWrimo just now (writing a 50,000 word novel in a month, how stupid is that?) and he describes exactly how I started and will probably continue...or not.
Posted by: Sarah Cuthbertson | 04 November 2009 at 05:30 PM
Good for you - I got bored and irritated, though I loved bits a lot. But I didn't skip - and I didn't know you were capable of such a sin? You MUST now read A Sentimental Journey, which is quite excellent and about a tenth of the length.
Posted by: Lindsay | 04 November 2009 at 07:38 PM
But did I skip, Lindsay? I merely offered the possibility of skipping!
Posted by: Cornflower | 04 November 2009 at 07:58 PM
Good luck with both, Sarah!
Posted by: Cornflower | 04 November 2009 at 07:59 PM
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Lindsay
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Posted by: Lindsay | 04 November 2009 at 09:11 PM
I don't think Sterne would mind if you skipped bits, or indeed read it backwards or standing on your head. It is that kind of book. Did you know that Sterne was a victim of body-snatchers and in the manner of his own literature someone reputedly brought a public medical disection to a end by shouting that's Laurence Sterne as they viewed the body on the slab! he was duly reburied.
Posted by: Juxtabook | 07 November 2009 at 12:02 PM
I read this for a post grad course - really enjoyed it (apart from the bit with the nuns if I remember correctly - seemed to go on for the length of a bible!). I just loved Uncle Toby, and the mystery as to where he was injured!
Posted by: Barbara | 28 August 2010 at 05:18 PM