Book Review: Tristram Shandy Vol.1, 2 (1759) by Laurence Sterne
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman – Vol. 1 and 2 (1759) by Laurence Sterne
To gather coherent thoughts about a work as remarkably unique as The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, is perhaps as taxing a task as making way through the novel itself. The literary masterpiece that popularly went on to be defined as the “quintessential novel”, and inspired works of literary giants such as James Joyce, is a category unto its own, that even in its own time refused to conform to ideas of what a novel should be. Written by Laurence Sterne in nine volumes over a span of ten years, Tristram Shandy veers into an uncharted literary territory that belongs more to the postmodern era than that of the eighteenth century, and despite its oddities, continues to be revered as an inimitable work of fiction.
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, sets out to share exactly what the title professes; the novel is written as an autobiographical work by Tristram Shandy, the authorial figure, and is a product of Shandy’s attempts to serialise his life in a number of volumes – the first two of which came out in 1759. Laurence Sterne, himself, takes a back seat as Tristram Shandy engages with his audience in a manner that is unprecedented in its intimacy, and, at times, far-reaching in its attempts at familiarity. In fact, to get acquainted with the reader is the principle aim of the book, as Shandy openly admits at the very beginning: “As you proceed farther with me, the slight acquaintance, which is now beginning betwixt us, will grow into familiarity; and that unless one of us is in fault, will terminate in friendship.”
This friendship is one that is embarked upon in a remarkably entertaining, if not tiresome, manner, as Shandy attempts to navigate through his life without compromising on the opinions he simply cannot resist sharing. The digressive nature of the narrative is, in fact, its defining feature, and to be considered an intentional method employed to introduce the reader to Tristram Shandy, his family, his beliefs and his misfortunes. The opinions of Tristram Shandy are so very elemental to the trajectory of his life that in his telling of his life story, Shandy in not even born within the first three volumes of his autobiography.
Shandy, in essence, is a story-teller, and he is one that most readers must have been acquainted with at various points in their lives: he simply cannot get to the point. Here, however, the very point seems to be everything that makes Tristram Shandy into the person he is, and he simply must elaborate upon the nature of every minor contributor to his existence. Within the first two volumes, thus, Shandy introduces the reader to his family, as well as other characters such as the town doctor and midwife.
Extremely thorough in his details, Shandy chooses to begin at what may constitute the very beginning – his story begins ab Ovo, quite literally, at the point of his conception as a mere sperm. The moment of his conception, according to him, set the precedent for the nature his entire was to encapsulate; conceived in a moment of ill-timed interaction between his parents, his entire existence is doomed to spell out failure of various degrees. This claim is substantiated by his narration of other unfortunate occurrences that mark his early life, such as the flattening of his nose, or him being misnamed.
While Tristram Shandy works his way towards his own birth, he utilizes two volumes of his autobiography to acquaint the reader with all back-stories that may at some point tie into his own narrative. In doing so, Tristram Shandy identifies his father, Walter Shandy, and his uncle, Toby Shandy, as character perhaps equally important to his own – all three of these individuals are tied together through the their own failed expectations of life, and are well-acquainted with the concept of obsessions – one that Uncle Toby refers to as “hobby-horses”.
The ideas of obsession is one that is frequently brought about in the book, either quite explicitly, as in Walter Shandy’s curiously specific interest in noses, or Toby’s fascination with battle strategy – or in a more self-referential manner, with Tristram Shandy’s invocation of John Locke’s theories of association mirroring the interspersing webs of thought within Shandy’s own narrative. Shandy’s narrative, in fact, is one that is dependent on the inter-connectedness of ideas, and may very well not have been able to support itself through mere, linear plot.
In the reading of this novel, it is easy to forget that Sterne holds the helm of the authorial ship, and Tristram Shandy, is, in fact, a mere fictional character attempting to narrate his story in an unconventional manner. In breathing life into a character who refuses to even be born in a straightforward manner, Sterne depicts the finest mastery of the art of narrative, and successfully blurs the line between fact and fiction. Tristram Shandy’s story, while eccentric, unfamiliar, and at times completely frustrating in its unfolding, is one that is, interestingly, more true to real life than most linear narratives. Under the layers of humor, digressions and heavily opinionated – and hence, unreliable – narration, is the acknowledgement of a life that simply does not progress in neat chronology. Life is, after all, a product of a million separate narratives the weave into one another, and it continues to move forward with or without a well-defined plot. Tristram Shandy does something similar, and manages to assign novelty to what may very well be the familiar.
