Tristram Shandy: Gentleman

Released this week, an abridged version of Laurence Sterne’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, read by Steven Pacey, for Penguin Classics.

“I am got, I know not how, into a cold un-metaphorical vein of infamous writing, and cannot take a plumb-lift out of it for my soul; so must be obliged to go on writing like a Dutch commentator to the end of the chapter, unless something be done….”

Laurence Sterne’s great masterpiece of bawdy humour and rich satire defies any attempt to categorize it. Part novel, part digression, its gloriously disordered narrative interweaves the birth and life of the unfortunate “hero” Tristram Shandy, the eccentric philosophy of his father Walter, the amours and military obsessions of Uncle Toby, and a host of other characters, including Dr Slop, Corporal Trim and the parson Yorick.

A joyful celebration of the endless possibilities of the art of fiction, Tristram Shandy is also a wry demonstration of its limitations

Publisher’s Summary