The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy

Issued in instalments from 1759 to 1767, this comic novel pretends to be the autobiography of Tristram Shandy but keeps missing its own birth. Digressions on his parents' marriage, his nose, his name, and the hobby-horses of Uncle Toby and Corporal Trim displace straight chronology, while sermons, blank pages, and addresses to the reader stall the plot. The Yorkshire parlour, the bowling green where Toby restages sieges, and the Widow Wadman occupy more space than the hero's career. The book is a satire on narration and learning, not a conventional life story.

Bound in white cloth with a design in black, green, yellow purple and blue. Green-grey endleaves. Grey-green slipcase. Gap in page numbering as there is no chapter 24, only a blank page, as Sterne intended.