Cover of The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy, gentleman

The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy, gentleman

by Laurence Sterne

First published
1760
Reading level
Fairly demanding
Price
Free

About the book

"The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" by Laurence Sterne is a humorous novel published from 1759 to 1767. The work purports to be a memoir, but narrator Tristram doesn't reach his own birth until the third volume. Through endless digressions, he recounts four accidents that doomed him to misfortune while depicting conflicts between his irritable father Walter and gentle Uncle Toby. The novel features sexual innuendo, unfinished sentences, and surprising visual elements including blank pages and censored paragraphs, transforming Sterne from obscure clergyman to literary celebrity.

  • Stream of consciousness fiction
  • Experimental fiction
  • Fiction
  • Infants
  • Fetus

Updated September 2026. Public domain in the USA. Text and summary from Project Gutenberg eBook #1079. The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy, gentleman on Wikipedia.

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