Laurence Sterne was an Irish-born English novelist and an Anglican clergyman. He is best known for his novels The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, and A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy; but he also published many sermons, wrote memoirs, and was involved in local politics. Sterne died in London after years of fighting consumption.
A comic novel recounting the life, with innumerable and often nonsensical diversions, of the narrator. The novel begins with Shandy’s entrance into his mother’s womb and continues to adulthood.