The Cambridge Companion to Laurence Sterne

by Thomas Keymer (Editor)

Best known today for the innovative satire and experimental narrative of Tristram Shandy (1759–67), Laurence Sterne was no less famous in his time for A Sentimental Journey (1768) and for his controversial sermons. Sterne spent much of his life as an obscure clergyman in rural Yorkshire. But he brilliantly exploited the sensation achieved with the first instalment of Tristram Shandy to become, by his death in 1768, a fashionable celebrity across Europe. In this Companion, specially commissioned essays by leading scholars provide an authoritative and accessible guide to Sterne's writings in their historical and cultural context. Exploring key issues in his work, including sentimentalism, national identity, gender, print culture and visual culture, as well as his subsequent influence on a range of important literary movements and modes, the book offers a comprehensive new account of Sterne's life and work.

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Thomas Keymer is University Professor and Chancellor Jackman Professor of English at the University of Toronto, where he is affiliated with University College, and Director of U of T's Collaborative Program in Book History & Print Culture, based at Massey College, where he is a Senior Fellow. Born in London, he studied at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, under the direction of J. H. Prynne, and was later Research Fellow and Quatercentenary Visiting Fellow at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Before moving to Toronto with his family in 2006, he taught for six years at Royal Holloway, University of London, and for ten years at St Anne’s College, Oxford, where he remains a Supernumerary Fellow. He has also held a Visiting Professorship at the University of Exeter. For the past few years he has served as General Editor of the Review of English Studies, a Senior Editor of Oxford Handbooks Online, and co-General Editor of the Cambridge Edition of the Works & Correspondence of Samuel Richardson. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Royal Historical Society and the English Association, and he was recently awarded a 2015 Guggenheim Fellowship. His research and teaching focus mainly on Restoration, eighteenth-century and Romantic-period British and Irish literature, and he has particular interests in narrative and the novel; print culture and history of the book; literature, politics and national identities; literature and law (especially seditious libel and censorship in general); theories of intertextuality, influence and reception; the theory and practice of textual editing.

Reviews

[Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little bit uneven as a volume, but aren't they always? Nonethless I think I got something useful out of every chapter, and the collection filled some gaps for me very usefully while working on Sterne's Wikipedia articles.