Laurence Sterne
Author
Ian Campbell Ross (Fellow Of Trinity College, Dublin And Senior Lecturer In English)
The publication of a bawdy novel, Tristram Shandy (1759-67), dramatically changed the life of Laurence Sterne. An obscure provincial clergyman, emotionally and professionally frustrated, he became the most fashionable writer of his day. Praised and reviled in turn, Sterne enjoyed a celebrity which illuminates the nature of eighteenth-century literary fame.