Laurence Sterne

El gran clásico de la literatura universal, novela favorita de Javier Marías, traducida por el mismo. "Una obra rica, ambiciosa, compleja, burlona y poco definible, que valió a su autor en su epoca tanto fama como denuestos, y en todas las demas epocas hasta hoy conocidas una ardiente admiracion: el incomparable ritmo de su prosa, su ingenio inagotable, los inverosimiles juegos de palabras, la complicada estructura narrativa, la negacion absoluta de una concepcion lineal del tiempo, su vibrante y aguda escritura y su originalisimapuntuacion, su ironica aplicacion a la novela de teorias filosoficas y cientificas, su perfecto manejo de la parodia y sus numerosas extravagancias y osadias sintacticas y tipograficas, hablan por si solos de su modernidad y nos hacen ver como simples imitaciones, ya anticuadas, a demasiadas "originalidades" contemporaneas. Tristram Shandy es mi libro favorito: es, a un mismo tiempo, la novela clasica mas cercana al Quijote y a la del siglo en que escribo; tanto su recuerdo como su frecuentacion esporadica me producen un indefectible placer; puede abrirse por cualquier pagina, con asombro y sonrisa siempre. No creo haber aprendido mas sobre el arte de la novela que durante su traduccion. Sin duda, mi mejor obra."

Laurence Sternes great masterpiece of bawdy humour and rich satire defies any attempt to categorize it. Part novel, part digression, its gloriously disordered narrative interweaves the birth and life of the unfortunate "hero" Tristram Shandy, the eccentric philosophy of his father Walter, the amours and military obsessions of Uncle Toby, and a host of other characters, including Dr. Slop, Corporal Trim and the parson Yorick. A joyful celebration of the endless possibilities of the art of fiction, Tristram Shandy is also a wry demonstration of its limitations.

"Pubblicato nel 1768 ha inaugurato il genere della ""guida sentimentale"" attenta alle piccole cose degli uomini e del paesaggio anziché a monumenti e per

Inspirándose en modelos tandispares como El Quijote cervantino, los Cuentos de Voltaire y Obras de Locke, logró Sterne edificar una de las novelas más divertidas que jamás se hayan escrito. Crítico, irónico, ácido y siempre jovial, el Tristram Shandy -con sus inefables opiniones- es también un permanente experimento narrativo, una obra literariamente radical y revolucionaria. Por eso, a más de dos siglos de distancia Sterne es -en mayor medida que muchos novelistas actuales- un escrito estrictamente contemporáneo.

"L---d! said my mother, what is all this story about?----A COCK and a BULL, said Yorick----And one of the best of its kind, I ever heard." It is appropriate that the last line of Laurence Sterne's digressive, irreverent narrative should serve as the best introduction to the book. A classic of English literature, "Tristram Shandy" was published in nine volumes between 1759 and 1767, at a time when the English novel was just beginning to acquire its distinguishing features thanks to Sterne's contemporaries, Henry Fielding and Samuel Richardson. Sterne borrowed some of his techniques from Rabelais, and some of his ideas from Robert Burton and John Locke. The bulk of this "novel," however, attests to a rare creative faculty capable of parodying much of what would become the novelistic conventions of the 18th and 19th centuries, while at the same time broadening and exploring territory that has been rediscovered only in the 20th-century. Tristram Shandy ("shandy" meaning "crack-brained, half-crazy") narrates his own genesis and development, beginning with the moment of his conception--although his digressions prevent him from taking his evolution much beyond the age of two. Through his eyes we meet his father, Walter, who is eloquent, animated, and equally fond of discursive ventures into philosophy, history, medicine, and science, all at a breakneck pace; his uncle Toby, whose main distractions are his own accounts of military strategies which he acts out with his servant Corporal Trim; the confused Mrs. Shandy; the polemical and hasty parson, Yorick; the ignorant physician, Dr. Slop; and the intractable household servant, Obadiah. Stern's abiding loyalty to the associative nature of ideas, to immediacy, has been singled out by critics as an early form of the stream-of-consciousness technique. The countless examples of Stern's stylistic innovations--approximating the human mind's tendency to disorder and reassemble reality, avoiding any consistent plot or conclusion, eschewing moralistic or cautionary messages, offering rows of various typefaces, blank pages, and diagrams in place of conventional text--are proof that "Tristram Shandy", flying in the face of novelistic conventions, was centuries ahead of its time.

Una obra rica, ambiciosa, compleja, burlona y poco definible, que valió a su autor en su época tanta fama como denuestos, y en todas las demás épocas hasta hoy conocidas una ardiente admiración.'Tristam Shandy es mi libro favorito: es, a un mismo tiempo, la novela clásica más cercana al Quijote y a la del siglo en que escribo; tanto su recuerdo como su frecuentación esporádica me producen un indefectible placer; puede abrirse por cualquier página, con asombro y sonrisa siempre. No creo haber aprendido más sobre el arte de la novela que durante su traducción. Sin duda, mi mejor obra.' Javier Marías

Far removed from the conventional travel book, this work is based in fiction rather than reportage. Sterne travelled extensively in the 1760s, and drew on his experiences to write the narrative of Mr Yorick, the sentimental traveller. "The Journal to Eliza" and "A Political Romance" both demonstrate the rare early satire which marked the beginning of the major phase of Sterne's career.