An introduction to Irish Writing in English

PRE- TWENTIETH CENTURY SELECTION

LAURENCE STERNE (1713 – 1768): 

Laurence Sterne was born in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary. 

He was a Protestant pastor. 

Just as Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe was the first great novel in England (1719), Laurence Sterne’s novel Tristram Shandy (1759) could be described as the first great novel in Ireland.

This novel (or anti-novel!) is full of jokes, has no plot (the preface is in volume three!), it doesn't follow the normal time-line of a novel and it's about...nothing at all! 

It can be said to be a reflection of the chaos and absurdity of life itself. It's full of red herrings and non sequiturs.  Before Tristram is even born, the reader has already gone through one third of the book! (It's supposed to be about his life!) 

Influenced by Rabelais, Sterne was greatly admired by  Voltaire and Goethe, who praised him highly for his work.

Is it a novel? Well, yes, sort of, (because it's not a real biography), but there's no story. It is full of novel ideas and madcap literary acrobatics, e.g. when Sterne wants to describe the flourish of his uncle’s walking-stick, what does he do? Does he look up his dictionary or thesaurus to select from a variety of descriptive adjectives? No!  He draws a squiggle on the page!

When an uncle dies, the following page is black, completely black and wordless!  The 'hero' of the novel, Tristram Shandy, is a scatterbrain who can't organize his thoughts and who gets easily distracted.

The book has no beginning and no end. It is certainly the craziest novel in English of the 18th century and probably one of the craziest of all times!  It's mad - but it's wonderful!  When asked about it, Sterne would say, 'It's like life itself!'

Although the book was dismissed at first in England because of its bawdy humour, it is still read with great interest and pleasure three hundred years later. Twentieth century writers like Joyce and Beckett were influenced by it and loved it for its madness and creative genius.