Laurence Sterne and the Eighteenth-Century Book

Offers new readings of Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy by considering its design features alongside broader developments in eighteenth-century book production.

Helen Williams (Author)

9781108842761, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 1 April 2021

228 pages
15.5 x 23.5 x 2 cm, 0.47 kg

'Any and all further commentary on Sterne's experimental typography must begin with Williams, for in her thorough, eminently readable treatment of the effects of typography in Tristram Shandy, she uncovers new meaning as she excavates and elaborates the material context in which the novel first appeared.' Elizabeth Kraft, The Scriblerian and the Kit-Cat

Scrutinising Sterne's fiction through a book history lens, Helen Williams creates novel readings of his work based on meticulous examination of its material and bibliographical conditions. Alongside multiple editions and manuscripts of Sterne's own letters and works, a panorama of interdisciplinary sources are explored, including dance manuals, letter-writing handbooks, newspaper advertisements, medical pamphlets and disposable packaging. For the first time, this wealth of previously overlooked material is critically analysed in relation to the design history of Tristram Shandy, conceptualising the eighteenth-century novel as an artefact that developed in close conjunction with other media. In examining the complex interrelation between a period's literature and the print matter of everyday life, this study sheds new light on Sterne and eighteenth-century literature by re-defining the origins of his work and of the eighteenth-century novel more broadly, whilst introducing readers to diverse print cultural forms and their production histories.

1. Hands
2. The Black Page
3. The Sermon 4. The Marbled Page
5. Footnotes and Catchwords
6. Engraved Lines.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD], Literature: history & criticism [DS], Literature & literary studies [D]