The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

Sterne's utterly original novel—the meandering, maddening "autobiography" of one of literature's oldest comic characters, with an introduction by Tom McCarthy Doomed to become the "sport of fortune" by an interruption at the crucial moment of conception, Tristram Shandy’s life lurches from one mishap to another: his nose crushed by the doctor's forceps during birth, christened with the wrong name, an unfortunate incident involving a slamming sash window. Groundbreaking, subversive, and still controversial, this novel has inspired, enraged, and perplexed writers and readers for centuries. Discover the antiautobiography of the hilarious and impossibly long-winded Tristram Shandy.

Laurence Sterne (1713–1768) was a clergyman. The publication of the first volumes of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy in 1759 made him famous throughout Europe overnight. He went on to complete the remaining volumes over the next seven years. Tom McCarthy is the author of C, Men in Space, and Remainder.