‘Not only scandalously indecent but absolutely dull.’ This appraisal of Laurence Sterne’s novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy Gentleman, appeared in the Monthly Review, Or Literary Journal in 1760, and opened a recent episode of BBC Radio 4’s ‘In Our Time’ which examined Sterne’s literary work. However, Melvyn Bragg’s panel for the discussion, broadcast on 24th April 2014, did anything but agree with such scathing remarks. On this occasion Bragg invited guests Judith Hawley (Royal Holloway, University of London), John Mullan (University College, London University) and Mary Newbould (Wolfson College, Cambridge University) to introduce listeners to Sterne’s extraordinary nine-volume book – panellists quickly formed a consensus that the text could be referred to as a single book entity – alongside the world in which it was produced.
The programme’s return to eighteenth-century studies will come as no surprise to regular listeners: a search on the ‘In Our Time’ online archive reveals a wealth of material on the period, including episodes discussing such varied content as epistolary literature, the Grand Tour, vitalism and, most recently, the South Sea Bubble. A turn of attention towards Sterne is timely when one considers the range of events which have been held over the last year, including two international conferences and two UK-based exhibitions celebrating the tercentenary of the author and cleric’s birth.
Based on a text filled with imaginative wordplay, wry mischief and bawdy humour, the discussion led by Bragg remained playful and digressive throughout, much in the spirit of Sterne’s own writing. Laughter that can be heard from the group (particularly that which was caused by Hawley’s funny and vivacious quotations from the original text) exuded that very air of ‘learned ribaldry’ which, Mullan explained, can be found in the fictional, autobiographical account of Tristram’s life.
Born at Shandy Hall, a fictional setting not dissimilar to Sterne’s own home in Coxwold to which he gave the same name, the character-narrator Tristram attempts to put pen to paper so as to record his life. Although a fictional memoir of the life of an individual, Tristram Shandy is far from a simple chronological account of events. Bragg challenged guests to tease out multiple meanings of the text’s many experimental features as well as to capture the ‘non-plottable plot’ in a few sentences for the benefit of listeners.
As Mullan indicated, before making his own concise summary which was duly admired by Bragg, this reduction of the novel has been historically acknowledged to be a hazardous and complex pursuit within literary studies. Even when working directly with the texts, Sterne’s critics have admitted a certain level of perplexity around the formation of the narrative, partly as a tribute to the author’s ingenuity as well as the book’s value and place in the English canon.
In an introduction to the novel John Cowper Powys begins: ‘[i]f there is any book in English Literature harder to analyse, more difficult to dissect, more evasive under a critic’s microscope, than Tristram Shandy, I have yet to learn its name.’ Alongside Mullan, Newbould provided further summary, using the words of the novel itself – ‘[i]t is a history…of what passes in a man’s own mind’ – in order to demonstrate the fragmented, shambolic and even ‘crack-brained’ (the meaning of the colloquial term ‘Shandy’) essence of Sterne’s creativity in developing his work of fiction.
In addition to offering listeners a taste of what one might expect to find on opening Tristram Shandy at any page, in any volume, conversations of the group also illuminated a variety of historical issues affecting the book’s production, such as Sterne’s biography and desire for celebrity status, relevant publication history, and cultural and critical receptions of the narrative since the first volume appeared in print in York on 18th December 1759. In line with popular scholarship on Sterne’s influences, the group developed an interesting overview of a literary marketplace where the concept of the ‘career novelist’ was as yet still unknown, and Hawley supplied many entertaining and informative observations regarding his diverse use and ‘plagiarism’ of other works such as Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy and John Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.
Particularly pleasing about the discussion was Bragg’s eager enquiry into – and the panel’s collective exploration of – the significant issues of typography and presentation of the published text. It is no easy matter to address such issues within the constraints of a radio broadcast. Clear descriptions offered by panellists ensured that listeners were able to visualise Sterne’s clever tricks of both style and marketing which helped to secure the book’s immediate success even in the early prints of volumes one and two.
These quirky characteristics, such as the black page, marbling print techniques, manicules and an array of eccentric punctuation using dashes and asterisks, have since been further interpreted by modern publishers through experimental printing techniques. One of the most recent editions to break new ground in innovative methods of Shandy-print is APFEL’s Visual Editions copy first produced in 2011.
Naturally a text of such vast and varying content offers significantly more than even experienced participants such as these can pack into less than an hour of air time. At varying points these conversations had the potential to follow paths leading off from Tristram Shandy into areas such as Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy and his sermons.
Enthusiasts of Sterne, contemporary fiction and cultural heritage will be interested in the additional few minutes of conversation added to the downloadable version of the broadcast. This bonus material allowed for coverage of Sterne’s influence on renowned authors including James Joyce and Salman Rushdie, and information about Shandy Hall’s own history – including the input of curators, previously Kenneth Monkman and currently Patrick Wildgust, both of whom have shown a creative flair and genuine affection for Sterne’s unique works.
Panel members and Bragg highlighted the importance of Wildgust’s present work at Shandy Hall which, along with their own pursuits within the Sterne community, will bring this distinctive author, along with his characters and alter-egos Parson Yorick and Tristram Shandy, more fully into the public consciousness.