Laurence Sterne: A Life

By Ian Campbell Ross

Book Overview

"I wrote to be famous, not to be fed," said Laurence Sterne upon publication of his comic masterpiece, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. And indeed, almost overnight, Sterne achieved fame beyond his wildest dreams. In this fascinating biography, Ian Campbell Ross shows how the great comic author combined a genius for self-promotion with a clear grasp of the nascent business of publishing to soar across the cultural and social firmament of mid-18th century England.
Ross begins with Sterne's childhood in Yorkshire and follows the young gentleman's progress to Cambridge and then to the Church of England and a humdrum rural vicarage. He describes his unhappy marriage to a woman who suffered a nervous breakdown and at one time believed herself to be the Queen of Bohemia, as well as his many scandalous liaisons with other women, experiences that helped inform his Rabelaisian novel. But the heart of the book is Ross's account of the country parson's sudden rise to prominence, swept up in a frenzy of celebrity excessive even by today's standards. Ross draws us into the glamorous world of literary London--a world of power and privilege ruled by fashionable legislators of taste--showing how Sterne marketed himself, as well as his novel, by seeking favors from influential critics, famous authors, and even leading statesmen.
Laurence Sterne: A Life is the first full biography to appear in fifteen years. Ian Campbell Ross makes deft use of recently discovered material, particularly a holograph of Sterne's memoir, to shed new light on the man, his work, and the nature of celebrity.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0192122355
• ISBN13: 9780192122353
• Release Date: June 2001
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.2" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

An Odd Author and His Spectacularly Odd and Funny Book

_Laurence Sterne: A Life_ (Oxford University Press), by Ian Campbell Ross, is a dandy new biography which I will tell you about. But the only real reason to be reading about Sterne is to increase appreciation of his wonderful book, _The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman_, which has been making people laugh for almost two and a half centuries. So let me make the recommendation first of that book to you, if you have never read it. Go read it, and when you finish, I'll be right here. There! What did I tell you? Intelligent, chaotic, witty amusement, with some bawdiness thrown in. I don't need to tell you of the thousand odd attractions of the book. It is one of the most fun of the classics. Now to the fine book at hand. Sterne was, Ross shows, just as peculiar as his book, and had as chaotic a life. Sterne lived only eight years after bursting onto the scene with _Tristram Shandy_, and to Ross's credit, he has made Sterne's pre-Shandy years interesting. Sterne had led a modest, impecunious life of a vicar in Yorkshire. He did a bit of political writing, but nothing that would have prepared anyone for his comic masterpiece. He had an unhappy marriage, and a remarkable interest in adultery. Then in 1759, the first two of the nine volumes of _Tristram Shandy_ were published, and caused a sensation. The reviews were very good, and if readers were puzzled by the extraordinary digressions and puzzles in the book, they laughed at them, and they bought them up. Then Sterne appeared in London, and was delighted to wear his black ministerial garments everywhere. This brought his book notoriety as well as fame; reviewers changed tone from praising the book's hilarity to criticizing the vicar for writing "downright gross and obscene expressions." Sterne became a hot ticket at dinners and salons. The zany mixture of adventures and accidents, farcical and sad, reflected the life of the author. This was an odd man, to be sure, who produced an odd book. Ross's elegant and thorough biography brings Sterne to life for our age. The gregarious James Boswell wrote that Sterne was "the best companion I ever knew," and those who find him to be a good companion in the form of his famous book will find him an even better one after reading this illuminating biography.