Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Paris, H. Launette
Description
Classic Literature. Fiction. HTML: Sterne travelled through France and Italy three years prior to writing A Sentimental Journey, which he completed on his death bed. The protagonist is a thinly-disguised Sterne who recounts his�mostly amorous�adventures through the two countries. Sterne very particularly wanted the account to be subjective; he discusses opinions and morals and personal experiences in opposition to the drier travelling accounts which dealt with history and classical learning. His book helped to establish travel writing as the dominant genre of the late 18th century..
User reviews
LibraryThing member Marse
A Sentimental Journey is the story of a man traveling from England to France and back and his adventures, or should I say, his encounters during the trip. We don't get a lot of "travel" descriptions, but rather descriptions of the carriages he takes, how he hires them, his servant, and the ladies
Show More
he meets and endeavors to get to know better on the journey. It is 'sentimental' in the sense of a journal of his sentiments towards the women, the servants, the places he goes. Fairly short. Show Less
LibraryThing member tortoisebook
This is the tale of a monk, Yorick, who embarks on a journey across the English Channel to Calais and on to Paris. He then sets out through France towards Italy, meeting a variety of characters and getting into tricky situations along the way, and that is as far as the story gets. Unfortunately the
The book was first published in 1768 so pre-dates the golden age of classic literature. The language is hard to grasp to begin with although the story begins to flow better as the book goes on. The book has some humour in it and is one of the earliest forms of travel writing by the leisurely tourist - perhaps Sterne was the Bill Bryson of his day.
I can't say I enjoyed this book. I can see that it stands as an early example of travel writing and is of interest to anyone who enjoyed Sterne's other work, principally Tristram Shandy (which I haven't read) but, for me, it didn't stand up as a novel to be read for pleasure. It ends so abruptly that I wondered what the point was of reading it at all. I was looking forward to an insight into 18th century France and Italy and I didn't really get that.
Show More
author, Laurence Sterne, succumbs to consumption before he has finished his book.The book was first published in 1768 so pre-dates the golden age of classic literature. The language is hard to grasp to begin with although the story begins to flow better as the book goes on. The book has some humour in it and is one of the earliest forms of travel writing by the leisurely tourist - perhaps Sterne was the Bill Bryson of his day.
I can't say I enjoyed this book. I can see that it stands as an early example of travel writing and is of interest to anyone who enjoyed Sterne's other work, principally Tristram Shandy (which I haven't read) but, for me, it didn't stand up as a novel to be read for pleasure. It ends so abruptly that I wondered what the point was of reading it at all. I was looking forward to an insight into 18th century France and Italy and I didn't really get that.
Show Less
LibraryThing member tripleblessings
Less of a travelogue and more a series of sketches, somewhat erotic stories, amusing or pathetic incidents, philosophical musings, and anecdotes of all kinds. Sterne is also the author of Tristram Shandy.
LibraryThing member keylawk
A serialized "Tristam Shandy" made the rural vicar "passing rich" and the talk of London. He balanced these with The Sermons of Mr. Yorick, a title apparently drawn from the "fellow of infinite jest". In 1762-64 and 1765-66, Sterne traveled through France and Italy. We find here the pretty
Show More
observations and naif adages of a man who understood that the real criminals in our society are the bores. One of the favorite apothegmas of everyone except a good many people, is: "God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb". I know, you thought it was Biblical.... Show Less
LibraryThing member Snakeshands
Sterne wanders around talking to swindlers and fops and very nice peasant folk, and keeps getting terribly attracted to women who he tells us of COURSE he did nothing with! A nice bit o' life-loving fluff from the guy who brought us Tristram Shandy. Too bad he didn't get to get into it further
Show More
before he died. Show Less
LibraryThing member stillatim
Another great example of why you need to really think about what a book's trying to do before you judge it. This is nice and subtle- on the one hand, it tugs the heart-strings unashamedly; on the other hand, it makes ruthless fun of you for having your heart-string tugged. Great stuff- unless
Show More
you're expecting well rounded three dimensional characters and believable plot turns and a coherent narrative and so on. Not here, friendo. Here you get intriguing reflections on the general goodness/evilness of humankind, and jokes at the expense of people who think you can make general reflections on morality in that way. I wish he'd been able to add a couple of volumes to it; the whole enterprise is so clever and so much less brow-beating than Tristram Shandy that it might've ended up being one of the best books I'd read. As is, it's pretty darn-tootin good. Show Less
LibraryThing member edwinbcn
Within the genre of travelogues, two approaches can be distinguished. There are those authors who describe fore-mostly the places, and the habits of the people they visit, from an anthropological point of view, and there are those who describe the people they meet on their travels from a more
In Sterne's A sentimental journey, his alter ego Yorick, which contemporary readers would know as a clergyman, travels to Paris, supposedly on his way to Italy. However, the story develops very slowly, and for the larger part the story is set in the environs of Paris, indicated but scantily.
If the book is humourous or witty, it is not clear in which way. Supposedly, various sketches or situation would be humourous to contemporaries of Sterne but the humour is lost on contemporary readers. In fact, A sentimental journey seems a rather boring little book, and all pleasure to be had from it can only be found by studying the introduction carefully which explains where to look for it. Even then, the notes in the annotated Penguin edition merely clarified what should already be clear to the educated reader, while leaving many possible clues unexplained.
Show More
humanistic point of view, as equals, so to speak. An example of the first type of travelogue would be Daniel Defoe's A tour through the whole island of Great Britain, which was published in 1724. Laurence Sterne's fictional A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy was published a few decades later in 1768. By this time, travel to the continent had become fashionable.In Sterne's A sentimental journey, his alter ego Yorick, which contemporary readers would know as a clergyman, travels to Paris, supposedly on his way to Italy. However, the story develops very slowly, and for the larger part the story is set in the environs of Paris, indicated but scantily.
If the book is humourous or witty, it is not clear in which way. Supposedly, various sketches or situation would be humourous to contemporaries of Sterne but the humour is lost on contemporary readers. In fact, A sentimental journey seems a rather boring little book, and all pleasure to be had from it can only be found by studying the introduction carefully which explains where to look for it. Even then, the notes in the annotated Penguin edition merely clarified what should already be clear to the educated reader, while leaving many possible clues unexplained.
Show Less
LibraryThing member annbury
Sometimes, you read a book that is widely acclaimed as a classic, a masterpiece, a part of the literary canon, and your reaction is "Eh", or possibly "Meh". That's my reaction to "A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy", which was a hit after it was published in 1768, and has been finding
Show More
readers for almost 250 years. When something like this happens, I assume that the problem isn't with the novel, it's with me. I couldn't get involved in the book, but that may be because I depend too much on narrative tension, and not enough on just being there. Also, I couldn't figure out what was going on at times: again, I may be too literal. For those who like this sort of thing, this is clearly the sort of thing they like. Hats off to them: I am not up to it. Show Less
LibraryThing member Benedict8
As I mentioned before about Laurence Sterne, after I have read his books I wish I could write like him!
LibraryThing member MeisterPfriem
The review refers to this edition:
The Carlton Classics, 152pp, London : John Long Ltd., 1923
A came across this little book by chance, an unassuming small 8vo hardback but carefully made, even a ribbon-marker sewed in, the smooth green and fairly ugly buckram brightened up by the publisher’s
The edition is edited with a Biographical Introduction by Hannaford Bennett and been given an Index. This the editor must have added as none of the earlier editions I consulted include it; curiously, it lists only the Chapter headings and these in alphabetical order. Did Mr. Hannaford Bennett want to amuse himself and edit the edition in the playful spirit of Sterne? But an error: - the location for the chapter ‘The Riddle’ is given as Calais, it should be Paris - is repeated in the Index. His oversight? And at the end of ‘The Rose – Paris’, what reads in the 2nd edition of 1768: ‘Rien que pisser’ and two lines further on: ‘to let Madame de Rambouliet p...ss on.’, is given out of pudency as: ‘Rien que …’, and: ‘to let Madame Rambouliet …;’. This 2nd edition of 1768 (Vol. I, London: Becket & De Hondt) lists alphabetically the subscribers, 281 names in all, some with multiple subscriptions e.g. 20 sets to Mr. Crew, 5 sets to Mr. Ogilby etc., so perhaps 400 sets altogether.
The first 2 volumes of A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy of what was planned to be a 4 volume work were published shortly before Sterne’s death in 1768. So it remains unfinished and the protagonist, Yorick, Sterne’s alter ego, never reaches Italy. It is one of the first travel books but quite unlike any that follows (but then, after all, Sterne wrote it). Yorick, after listing all classes of travellers, calls himself a ‘Sentimental Traveller’. What he means by this he explains in his own words:
"It is for this reason, Monsieur le Comte, continued I, that I have not seen the Palais Royal nor the Luxembourg, - nor the Façade of the Louvre, - nor have attempted to swell the catalogues we have of pictures, statues, and churches. I conceive every fair being as a temple, and would rather enter in, and see the original drawings, and loose sketches, hung up in it, than the transfiguration of Raphael itself.
The thirst of this, continued I, as impatient as that which inflames the breast of the connoisseur, has led me from my own home into France, and from France will lead me through Italy ;-‘tis a quiet journey of the heart in pursuit of Nature, and those affections which arise out of her, which make us love each other, - and the world, better than we do."
So it is his encounters, not with famous landmarks, but with men and women, Yorick talks about, foremost with women, because each one stirs his heart. Sterne’s unique prose cannot be read in haste, it demands time and leisure and the taste of each sentence. What I like best is a hint shining through of Yorick/Sterne laughing about himself. I will re-read Tristram Shandy. (VI-VII-10)
The Carlton Classics, 152pp, London : John Long Ltd., 1923
A came across this little book by chance, an unassuming small 8vo hardback but carefully made, even a ribbon-marker sewed in, the smooth green and fairly ugly buckram brightened up by the publisher’s
Show More
emblem in gold on the front that shows a snake curled around the letters J L and what presumably is an image of the tree of knowledge, holding a goblet in its mouth, tempting you, the reader, to drink from it.The edition is edited with a Biographical Introduction by Hannaford Bennett and been given an Index. This the editor must have added as none of the earlier editions I consulted include it; curiously, it lists only the Chapter headings and these in alphabetical order. Did Mr. Hannaford Bennett want to amuse himself and edit the edition in the playful spirit of Sterne? But an error: - the location for the chapter ‘The Riddle’ is given as Calais, it should be Paris - is repeated in the Index. His oversight? And at the end of ‘The Rose – Paris’, what reads in the 2nd edition of 1768: ‘Rien que pisser’ and two lines further on: ‘to let Madame de Rambouliet p...ss on.’, is given out of pudency as: ‘Rien que …’, and: ‘to let Madame Rambouliet …;’. This 2nd edition of 1768 (Vol. I, London: Becket & De Hondt) lists alphabetically the subscribers, 281 names in all, some with multiple subscriptions e.g. 20 sets to Mr. Crew, 5 sets to Mr. Ogilby etc., so perhaps 400 sets altogether.
The first 2 volumes of A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy of what was planned to be a 4 volume work were published shortly before Sterne’s death in 1768. So it remains unfinished and the protagonist, Yorick, Sterne’s alter ego, never reaches Italy. It is one of the first travel books but quite unlike any that follows (but then, after all, Sterne wrote it). Yorick, after listing all classes of travellers, calls himself a ‘Sentimental Traveller’. What he means by this he explains in his own words:
"It is for this reason, Monsieur le Comte, continued I, that I have not seen the Palais Royal nor the Luxembourg, - nor the Façade of the Louvre, - nor have attempted to swell the catalogues we have of pictures, statues, and churches. I conceive every fair being as a temple, and would rather enter in, and see the original drawings, and loose sketches, hung up in it, than the transfiguration of Raphael itself.
The thirst of this, continued I, as impatient as that which inflames the breast of the connoisseur, has led me from my own home into France, and from France will lead me through Italy ;-‘tis a quiet journey of the heart in pursuit of Nature, and those affections which arise out of her, which make us love each other, - and the world, better than we do."
So it is his encounters, not with famous landmarks, but with men and women, Yorick talks about, foremost with women, because each one stirs his heart. Sterne’s unique prose cannot be read in haste, it demands time and leisure and the taste of each sentence. What I like best is a hint shining through of Yorick/Sterne laughing about himself. I will re-read Tristram Shandy. (VI-VII-10)
Show Less
LibraryThing member john257hopper
This 250 year old novel was a fictional satire on a more serious non-fictional account of a journey through France and Italy by Sterne's contemporary Tobias Smollett. The satire is in the fact that the traveller here (Yorick, a minor character in Sterne's most famous novel The Life and Adventures
Show More
of Tristram Shandy) is entirely uninterested in seeing the famous sights, more in meeting and bickering with a motley collection of monks, innkeepers and aristocrats and flirting with various women he meets. Sterne died in 1768 before completing this book, so Yorick never actually makes it to Italy, and the novel finishes with him awkwardly discussing sleeping arrangements with a lady and her maid when there are only two proper beds available. Quite funny, with a few slightly rambling diversions. Show Less
LibraryThing member AliceAnna
Yeah, just not a fan. If it had been any longer, I wouldn't have finished it.
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1768