Tristram Shandy

Critics

• The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne

  As a general rule I go along with the advice that if a book doesn't grab you by the end of chapter 4, don't waste your time, there are plenty more. Yes, but not like Tristram Shandy. Nothing I've ever come across is like Sterne's extraordinary comic ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Fri, 24 Sep 2010

4 Reviews

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  Really unusual and difficult for all of the history one must know to appreciate the humor. Sterne was post-modern before PM became cool.

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  Shelle said on Dec 18, 2007 about the Paperback edition | 1 feedback

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  Possibly my favorite novel of all time...Always something new to discover, to laugh at, etc.

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  Albion said on May 29, 2007 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• *** This comment contains spoilers! ***

  

  Looking for IRONY?

  I was so curious to read it after a sample in the English Literature text that I bought it in english.
  I had some problems with some jokes but it was a great experience!
  Only 4 years after I fuond an italian version and it was not the same ^_^
  I really enjoyed Tristram !

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  Vanlilith said on Apr 11, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• My review and opinion of Tristram Shandy

  It was a several months ago I decided to read this book, understanding that it would be a funny, interesting read. Before I give you this review however, I feel I should tell you a little about where I'm coming from.

  I do not like to give up on books, as I feel one cannot get an honest opinion ... (continue)

  It was a several months ago I decided to read this book, understanding that it would be a funny, interesting read. Before I give you this review however, I feel I should tell you a little about where I'm coming from.

  I do not like to give up on books, as I feel one cannot get an honest opinion of the subject matter until one has all the information available to them. I finished Moby Dick, even though it is a reference book on ships rather than the advertised hunt for a deadly whale, just so I could say wholeheartedly that it never lets up in its endless preachy dictation.

  When it comes to Tristram however, I read the first three volumes, and laughed the same number of times. Sorry, chuckled. On that subject, how does one define a type of laughter? There are so many to choose from, giggling, chuckling, laughing, cackling, chortling, snickering, tittering, guffawing, sniggering. How does one define a particular kind of laugh, know which one to use and how to describe each one accurately?

  Anyway, I left you wondering what I thought of the 3 volumes I did read, and I shall tell you in the next paragraph after this. I can see how something can be brave and different at the time, but after some time has passed,it becomes a history lesson, merely relating to the reader what it was like when it was new, but without the context to make it seem so now.

  Whilst I can appreciate what it did and how it did it, I can't enjoy it on the level it was intended, and to continue reading it, even though I am not enjoying it, is not what it deserves. I can say I didn't like it, but not that it is a bad book, and for me to finish it and say otherwise is unjust. Either way, it has had some effect on me, as you may have guessed from the (rather shoddy) similar style of deviation used in this review.

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  Daniel Peachey said on May 30, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

Book Details

• Rating:
  (107)
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• English Books
• Audio Cassette
• Edition: Abridged Ed
• ISBN-10: 0140867562
• ISBN-13: 9780140867565
• Publisher: Penguin Audiobooks
• Pub date: Aug 27, 1998
• Also available as: Paperback, Hardcover, Audio CD, Library Binding, Others and eBook
• In other languages: other languages Livres Français, Deutsche Bücher, Libros en Español, Livros em Português, Libri Italiani, Nederlandse Boeken

Groups with this in collection

• Best 100 books ever, according to 100 contemporary authors (27)
• The Novel 100 (101)

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