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    Tristram Shandy

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    otetsyazikov

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Tristram Shandy

    Uploaded by

    otetsyazikov
    39 views2 pages

    Original Title

    TRISTRAM SHANDY

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    © © All Rights Reserved

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    39 views2 pages

    Tristram Shandy

    Uploaded by

    otetsyazikov

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
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    TRISTRAM SHANDY

    As its title suggests, the book is ostensibly Tristram's narration of his life story.
    But it is one of the central jokes of the novel that he cannot explain anything
    simply, that he must make explanatory diversions to add context and colour to
    his tale, to the extent that Tristram's own birth is not even reached until
    Volume III.

    Consequently, apart from Tristram as narrator, the most familiar and important
    characters in the book are his father Walter, his mother, his Uncle Toby, Toby's
    servant Trim, and a supporting cast of popular minor characters, including the
    chambermaid Susannah, Doctor Slop and the parson Yorick, who later became
    Sterne's favourite nom de plume and a very successful publicity stunt. Yorick is
    also the protagonist of Sterne's second work of fiction, A Sentimental Journey
    Through France and Italy.

    Most of the action is concerned with domestic upsets or misunderstandings,


    which find humour in the opposing temperaments of Walter—splenetic, rational,
    and somewhat sarcastic—and Uncle Toby, who is gentle, uncomplicated, and a
    lover of his fellow man.

    In between such events, Tristram as narrator finds himself discoursing at length


    on sexual practices, insults, the influence of one's name and noses, as well as
    explorations of obstetrics, siege warfare and philosophy, as he struggles to
    marshal his material and finish the story of his life.

    Though Tristram is always present as narrator and commentator, the book


    contains little of his life, only the story of a trip through France and accounts of
    the four comical mishaps which shaped the course of his life from an early age.
    Firstly, while he was still only an homunculus, Tristram's implantation within his
    mother's uterus was disturbed. At the very moment of procreation, his mother
    asked his father if he had remembered to wind the clock. The distraction and
    annoyance led to the disruption of the proper balance of humours necessary to
    conceive a well-favoured child. Secondly, one of his father's pet theories was
    that a large and attractive nose was important to a man making his way in life.
    In a difficult birth, Tristram's nose was crushed by Dr. Slop's forceps.

    Thirdly, another of his father's theories was that a person's name exerted
    enormous influence over that person's nature and fortunes, with the worst
    possible name being Tristram. In view of the previous accidents, Tristram's
    father decreed that the boy would receive an especially auspicious
    name, Trismegistus. Susannah mangled the name in conveying it to the curate,
    and the child was christened Tristram. According to his father's theory, his
    name, being a conflation of "Trismegistus" (after the esoteric mystic Hermes
    Trismegistus) and "Tristan" (whose connotation bore the influence through folk
    etymology of Latin tristis, "sorrowful"), doomed him to a life of woe and cursed
    him with the inability to comprehend the causes of his misfortune.
    Finally, as a toddler, Tristram suffered an accidental circumcision when
    Susannah let a window sash fall as he urinated out of the window because his
    chamberpot was missing.

    Main characters
     Tristram Shandy, narrator, although not present very much in the story.
     Walter Shandy, Tristram's opinionated father.
     Mrs. Shandy, his wife.
     Toby Shandy, Tristram's uncle, and Walter's brother; a war veteran.
     Trim, his corporal and servant.
     Yorick, the tall, lank parson; Tristram speculates that he descends from
    Shakespeare's Yorick.
     Dr. Slop, a doctor, or "man-midwife", as Walter calls him.

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