The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne (pdf e book reader txt) đ
Description
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, a fictional autobiography of the eponymous narrator, containsâperhaps surprisinglyâlittle about either his life or opinions, but what it does have is a meandering journey through the adventures of his close family and their associates. The book is famous for being more about the explanatory diversions and rabbit-holes that the narrator takes us down than the actual happenings he set out to describe, but in doing so he paints a vivid picture of the players and their personal stories.
Published two volumes at a time over the course of eight years, Tristram Shandy was an immediate commercial success although not without some confusion among critics. Sterneâs exploration of form that pushed at the contemporary limits of what could be called a novel has been hugely influential, garnering admirers as varied as Marx, Schopenhauer, Joyce, Woolf and Rushdie. The book has been translated into many other languages and adapted for the stage, radio, and film.
Read free book ÂŤThe Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne (pdf e book reader txt) đÂť - read online or download for free at americanlibrarybooks.com
- Author: Laurence Sterne
Read book online ÂŤThe Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne (pdf e book reader txt) đÂť. Author - Laurence Sterne
⸺â But this rich bale is not to be openâd now; except a small thread or two of it, merely to unravel the mystery of my fatherâs stay at Auxerre.
⸺â As I have mentioned itâ ââtis too slight to be kept suspended; and when âtis wove in, there is an end of it.
Weâll go, brother Toby, said my father, whilst dinner is coddlingâ âto the abby of Saint Germain, if it be only to see these bodies, of which Monsieur Sequier has given such a recommendation.â ⸺â Iâll go see anybody, quoth my uncle Toby; for he was all compliance through every step of the journeyâ ⸺â Defend me! said my fatherâ âthey are all mummiesâ ⸺â Then one need not shave; quoth my uncle Tobyâ ⸺â Shave! noâ âcried my fatherâ ââtwill be more like relations to go with our beards onâ âSo out we sallied, the corporal lending his master his arm, and bringing up the rear, to the abby of Saint Germain.
Everything is very fine, and very rich, and very superb, and very magnificent, said my father, addressing himself to the sacristan, who was a younger brother of the order of Benedictinesâ âbut our curiosity has led us to see the bodies, of which Monsieur Sequier has given the world so exact a description.â âThe sacristan made a bow, and lighting a torch first, which he had always in the vestry ready for the purpose; he led us into the tomb of St. Heribaldâ ⸺â This, said the sacristan, laying his hand upon the tomb, was a renowned prince of the house of Bavaria, who under the successive reigns of Charlemagne, Louis le Debonnair, and Charles the Bald, bore a great sway in the government, and had a principal hand in bringing everything into order and disciplineâ ⸺â
Then he has been as great, said my uncle, in the field, as in the cabinetâ ⸺â I dare say he has been a gallant soldierâ ⸺â He was a monkâ âsaid the sacristan.
My uncle Toby and Trim sought comfort in each otherâs facesâ âbut found it not: my father clapped both his hands upon his codpiece, which was a way he had when anything hugely tickled him: for though he hated a monk and the very smell of a monk worse than all the devils in hellâ ⸺â yet the shot hitting my uncle Toby and Trim so much harder than him, âtwas a relative triumph; and put him into the gayest humour in the world.
⸺â And pray what do you call this gentleman? quoth my father, rather sportingly: This tomb, said the young Benedictine, looking downwards, contains the bones of Saint Maxima, who came from Ravenna on purpose to touch the bodyâ ⸺â
⸺â Of Saint Maximus, said my father, popping in with his saint before him,â âthey were two of the greatest saints in the whole martyrology, added my fatherâ ⸺â Excuse me, said the sacristanâ ⸺⸺âtwas to touch the bones of Saint Germain, the builder of the abbyâ ⸺â And what did she get by it? said my uncle Tobyâ ⸺â What does any woman get by it? said my fatherâ ⸺â Martyrdome; replied the young Benedictine, making a bow down to the ground, and uttering the word with so humble but decisive a cadence, it disarmed my father for a moment. âTis supposed, continued the Benedictine, that St. Maxima has lain in this tomb four hundred years, and two hundred before her canonizationâ ⸺âTis but a slow rise, brother Toby, quoth my father, in this selfsame army of martyrs.â ⸺â A desperate slow one, anâ please your honour, said Trim, unless one could purchaseâ ⸺â I should rather sell out entirely, quoth my uncle Tobyâ ⸺â I am pretty much of your opinion, brother Toby, said my father.
⸺â Poor St. Maxima! said my uncle Toby low to himself, as we turnâd from her tomb: She was one of the fairest and most beautiful ladies either of Italy or France, continued the sacristanâ ⸺â But who the duce has got lain down here, besides her? quoth my father, pointing with his cane to a large tomb as we walked onâ ⸺â It is Saint Optat, Sir, answered the sacristanâ ⸺â And properly is Saint Optat placâd! said my father: And what is Saint Optatâs story? continued he. Saint Optat, replied the sacristan, was a bishopâ ⸺â
⸺â I thought so, by heaven! cried my father, interrupting himâ ⸺â Saint Optat!â ⸺â how should Saint Optat fail? so snatching out his pocketbook, and the young Benedictine holding him the torch as he wrote, he set it down as a new prop to his system of Christian names, and I will be bold to say, so disinterested was he in the search of truth, that had he found a treasure in Saint Optatâs tomb, it would not have made him half so rich: âTwas as successful a short visit as ever was paid to the dead; and so highly was his fancy pleasâd with all that had passed in it,â âthat he determined at once to stay another day in Auxerre.
âIâll see the rest of these good gentry tomorrow, said my father, as we crossâd over the squareâ âAnd while you are paying that visit, brother Shandy, quoth my uncle Tobyâ âthe corporal and I will mount the ramparts.
XXVIII⸺â Now this is the most puzzled skein of allâ ⸺â for in this last chapter, as far at least as it has helpâd me through Auxerre, I have been getting forwards in two different journies together, and with the same dash of the penâ âfor I have got entirely out of Auxerre in this journey which I am writing now, and I am got half way out of Auxerre in that which I shall write hereafterâ ⸺â There is but a certain degree of perfection in everything; and by pushing at something beyond that, I have brought myself into such a situation, as no
Comments (0)