Series:

Florida Edition of the Works of Laurence Sterne

7 total works

Cover of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
Samuel Johnson and Samuel Richardson condemned it. James Boswell and Goethe proclaimed it a masterpiece. And from the beginning Sterne realized he had written a book that would not suit everyone's taste. For more than two centuries. Tristram Shandy (1759-67) has astounded - and by turns confounded, captivated, angered, and amused but ever entertained - readers worldwide. While on the surface a comic, disjointed account of the title character's life and times, the work is in fact a brilliant commentary on life's inherent chaos, the pointed challenge of British clergy-man-turned-author Laurence Sterne to the twin concepts of rationalism and sentimentalism. Delineating his views through skillfully drawn representations - among them Tristram, Yorick, and Uncle Toby - Sterne pinpointed issues central to not only his era but our own. Filled with thought-provoking ideas and marked by an open, conversational writing style, Tristram Shandy: A Book for Free Spirits is an adroit guide to understanding the aims and achievements of Sterne's masterpiece and to fully appreciating its lessons for contemporary times.

Cover of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy; Gentleman Volume 1
Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy is narrated by the title character in a series of digressions and interruptions that purportedly show the "life and opinions" - part of the novel's full title - of Tristram. Composed of nine "Books" originally published between 1759-1767, the novel has more to do with Shandy family members and their foibles and history than it seemingly does with Tristram himself. However, it is through Tristram's relating the actions, beliefs, and opinions of his family members - primarily his father, Walter Shandy, and his paternal Uncle Toby - that the reader gets a clearer picture of Tristram's character.

Cover of The Sermons

The Sermons

by Laurence Sterne

Published 14 April 1996
This is a scholarly edition of Laurence Sterne's sermons. This volume contains the text of his 45 sermons.

Cover of The Sermons Notes

The Sermons Notes

by Laurence Sterne

Published 14 April 1996
"Every serious student of 18th-century religious thought will need to come to terms with this edition of Sterne's sermons. . . . The annotation alone will force scholars to explore again the notion that 18th-century Anglicanism, and Sterne's Anglicanism in particular, was devoid of conviction. . . . One of the special strengths of this edition is the editor's decision to provide ample quoted material from authors who influenced Sterne's work in these sermons. . . . Extremely erudite and sensitive."--William Spellman, University of North Carolina, Asheville

This two-volume scholarly edition of Laurence Sterne's 45 sermons is the first complete reprinting of the text of the sermons since the Shakespeare Head edition in 1927 and the first annotated edition ever. The introduction and notes demonstrate Sterne's method of composing sermons and indicate, wherever possible, the relationship between the sermons and Sterne's fiction and other writing. In addition, the annotation provides numerous connections between the sermons and Tristram Shandy and A Sentimental Journey.

Melvyn New's long and illuminating introduction outlines the main elements of late 17th- and early 18th-century Anglicanism and explores how this theological perspective informed Sterne's message in the pulpit. The work includes four categories of annotations: Sterne's sources, his theology, his other writings, and his clerical and private life.

As with the Florida edition of Tristram Shandy, this will be the edition that scholars will need to consult. Ecclesiastical and intellectual historians, as well as library scholars interested in the eighteenth century, will find this work of great usefulness.
Melvyn New, professor of English at the University of Florida, has been writing on Laurence Sterne for more than 25 years. He is coeditor, with Joan New, of the Florida edition of Tristram Shandy, volumes 1 and 2: The Text (1978); and coeditor of Tristram Shandy, volume 3: The Notes (1984). He is the author of Laurence Sterne as Satirist (UPF, 1969); Telling New Lies: Seven Essays in Fiction, Past and Present (UPF, 1992); and Tristram Shandy: A Book for Free Spirits (1994).

Cover of The Letters of Laurence Sterne Pt. 1; 1739-1764
This book is the culmination of more than forty years of research. These two volumes, the seventh and eighth in the heralded ""Florida Edition of the Works of Laurence Sterne"", offer the first collection of Sterne's letters in seventy-five years. Thirty new letters have been added, and all have been carefully and precisely reedited, making this the most accurate edition of his letters ever produced. The correspondence is thoroughly keyed to Sterne's published output, much of which has previously been edited by Melvyn New. New and coeditor Peter de Voogd also make major use of Arthur Cash's landmark biography of Sterne. The result is a work that securely establishes the literary as well as biographical significance of Sterne's letters. Sterne remains one of the towering figures of eighteenth-century life and literature, and a continuing influential presence in the canon of modern western fiction. Among those who have praised his writings are Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Salman Rushdie, Gabrial Garcia-Marquez, Vladimir Nabokov, Milan Kundera, and most recently, the Turkish Nobel Prize recipient Orhan Pamuk.

Cover of The Letters of Laurence Sterne Pt. 2; 1765-1768
This book is the culmination of more than forty years of research. These two volumes, the seventh and eighth in the heralded ""Florida Edition of the Works of Laurence Sterne"", offer the first collection of Sterne's letters in seventy-five years. Thirty new letters have been added, and all have been carefully and precisely reedited, making this the most accurate edition of his letters ever produced. The correspondence is thoroughly keyed to Sterne's published output, much of which has previously been edited by Melvyn New. New and coeditor Peter de Voogd also make major use of Arthur Cash's landmark biography of Sterne. The result is a work that securely establishes the literary as well as biographical significance of Sterne's letters. Sterne remains one of the towering figures of eighteenth-century life and literature, and a continuing influential presence in the canon of modern western fiction. Among those who have praised his writings are Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Salman Rushdie, Gabrial Garcia-Marquez, Vladimir Nabokov, Milan Kundera, and most recently, the Turkish Nobel Prize recipient Orhan Pamuk

Cover of The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman: The Notes
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (or Tristram Shandy) is a novel by Laurence Sterne. It was published in nine volumes, the first two appearing in 1759, and seven others following over the next seven years (vols. 3 and 4, 1761; vols. 5 and 6, 1762; vols. 7 and 8, 1765; vol. 9, 1767). It purports to be a biography of the eponymous character. Its style is marked by digression, double entendre, and graphic devices. As its title suggests, the book is ostensibly Tristram's narration of his life story. But it is one of the central jokes of the novel that he cannot explain anything simply, that he must make explanatory diversions to add context and colour to his tale, to the extent that Tristram's own birth is not even reached until Volume III.