Tristram Shandy
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Laurence Sterne's comic novel Tristram Shandy.
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Laurence Sterne's novel Tristram Shandy. Sterne's comic masterpiece is an extravagantly inventive work which was hugely popular when first published in 1759. Its often bawdy humour, and numerous digressions, are combined with bold literary experiment, such as a page printed entirely black to mark the death of one of the novel's characters. Dr Johnson wrote that "Nothing odd will do long. Tristram Shandy did not last" - but two hundred and fifty years after the book's publication, Tristram Shandy remains one of the most influential and widely admired books of the eighteenth century.
With:
Judith Hawley
Professor of Eighteenth-Century Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London
John Mullan
Professor of English at University College London
Mary Newbould
Bowman Supervisor in English at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
Last on
LINKS AND FURTHER READING
Judith Hawley at Royal Holloway, University of London
John Mullan at University College London
Mary Newbould at the University of Cambridge
Laurence Sterne - Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Tristram Shandy - an online edition
The International Laurence Sterne Foundation
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman - Wikipedia
READING LIST:
Max Byrd, Tristram Shandy (HarperCollins, 1985)
Ian Campbell Ross, Laurence Sterne: A Life (Oxford University Press, 2002)
Arthur H. Cash, Laurence Sterne: The Early and Middle Years (Routledge, 1992)
Arthur H. Cash, Laurence Sterne: The Later Years (Routledge, 1993)
Terry Eagleton, Crazy John and the Bishop and Other Essays on Irish Culture (Cork University Press, 1998), especially the essay ‘The Good-Natured Gael’
Alan B. Howes (ed.), Sterne: The Critical Heritage (Routledge, 2002)
Thomas Keymer, Sterne, The Moderns and The Novel (Oxford University Press, 2003)
Thomas Keymer (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Laurence Sterne (Cambridge University Press, 2009)
Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human (1st published 1879, General Books LLC, 2012), especially the chapter ‘The Freest Writer’
Martin Rowson, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (Picador, 1996)
Laurence Sterne (eds. Melvyn New and Joan New), The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy Vols. 1-2: The Text. Vol. 3: The Notes (University Presses of Florida, 1984)
Laurence Sterne (ed.) Melvyn New, New Casebooks: Tristram Shandy (Macmillan, 1992)
Credits
| Role | Contributor |
|---|---|
| Presenter | Melvyn Bragg |
| Interviewed Guest | Judith Hawley |
| Interviewed Guest | John Mullan |
| Interviewed Guest | Mary Newbould |
| Producer | Thomas Morris |
Broadcasts
- Thu 24 Apr 2014 09:00BBC Radio 4
- Thu 24 Apr 2014 21:30BBC Radio 4
Featured in...
![]()
18th Century—In Our Time
Browse the 18th Century era within the In Our Time archive.
![]()
Culture—In Our Time
Popular culture, poetry, music and visual arts and the roles they play in our society.
In Our Time podcasts
Download programmes from the huge In Our Time archive.
The In Our Time Listeners' Top 10
If you’re new to In Our Time, this is a good place to start.
Arts and Ideas podcast
Download the best of Radio 3's Free Thinking programme.
Podcast
-
![]()
In Our Time
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas, people and events that have shaped our world.
