The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne (pdf e book reader txt) đ
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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.
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- 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
Methinks, said Didius, half rising from his chair, in order to remove a bottle and a tall decanter, which stood in a direct line betwixt him and Yorickâ ⸺â you might have spared this sarcastic stroke, and have hit upon a more proper place, Mr. Yorickâ âor at least upon a more proper occasion to have shown your contempt of what we have been about: If the sermon is of no better worth than to light pipes withâ ⸺âtwas certainly, Sir, not good enough to be preached before so learned a body; and if âtwas good enough to be preached before so learned a bodyâ ⸺âtwas certainly, Sir, too good to light their pipes with afterwards.
⸺â I have got him fast hung up, quoth Didius to himself, upon one of the two horns of my dilemmaâ ⸺â let him get off as he can.
I have undergone such unspeakable torments, in bringing forth this sermon, quoth Yorick, upon this occasionâ ⸝that I declare, Didius, I would suffer martyrdomâ âand if it was possible my horse with me, a thousand times over, before I would sit down and make such another: I was delivered of it at the wrong end of meâ ⸺â it came from my head instead of my heartâ ⸝and it is for the pain it gave me, both in the writing and preaching of it, that I revenge myself of it, in this mannerâ âTo preach, to show the extent of our reading, or the subtleties of our witâ âto parade in the eyes of the vulgar with the beggarly accounts of a little learning, tinselâd over with a few words which glitter, but convey little light and less warmthâ ⸺â is a dishonest use of the poor single half hour in a week which is put into our handsâ ââTis not preaching the gospelâ âbut ourselvesâ ⸺â For my own part, continued Yorick, I had rather direct five words point-blank to the heart.â â
As Yorick pronounced the word point-blank, my uncle Toby rose up to say something upon projectilesâ ⸺â when a single word and no more uttered from the opposite side of the table drew everyoneâs ears towards itâ âa word of all others in the dictionary the last in that place to be expectedâ âa word I am ashamed to writeâ âyet must be writtenâ ⸺â must be readâ âillegalâ âuncanonicalâ âguess ten thousand guesses, multiplied into themselvesâ ârackâ âtorture your invention forever, youâre where you wasâ ⸺⸺â In short, Iâll tell it in the next chapter.
XXVIIZounds!â ⸝Zâ ⸺â ds! cried Phutatorius, partly to himselfâ ⸺â and yet high enough to be heardâ âand what seemed odd, âtwas uttered in a construction of look, and in a tone of voice, somewhat between that of a man in amazement and one in bodily pain.
One or two who had very nice ears, and could distinguish the expression and mixture of the two tones as plainly as a third or a fifth, or any other chord in musicâ âwere the most puzzled and perplexed with itâ âthe concord was good in itselfâ âbut then âtwas quite out of the key, and no way applicable to the subject started;â ⸺â so that with all their knowledge, they could not tell what in the world to make of it.
Others who knew nothing of musical expression, and merely lent their ears to the plain import of the word, imagined that Phutatorius, who was somewhat of a cholerick spirit, was just going to snatch the cudgels out of Didiusâs hands, in order to bemaul Yorick to some purposeâ âand that the desperate monosyllable Zâ ⸺â ds was the exordium to an oration, which, as they judged from the sample, presaged but a rough kind of handling of him; so that my uncle Tobyâs good-nature felt a pang for what Yorick was about to undergo. But seeing Phutatorius stop short, without any attempt or desire to go onâ âa third party began to suppose, that it was no more than an involuntary respiration, casually forming itself into the shape of a twelve-penny oathâ âwithout the sin or substance of one.
Others, and especially one or two who sat next him, looked upon it on the contrary as a real and substantial oath, propensly formed against Yorick, to whom he was known to bear no good likingâ âwhich said oath, as my father philosophized upon it, actually lay fretting and fuming at that very time in the upper regions of Phutatoriusâs purtenance; and so was naturally, and according to the due course of things, first squeezed out by the sudden influx of blood which was driven into the right ventricle of Phutatoriusâs heart, by the stroke of surprise which so strange a theory of preaching had excited.
How finely we argue upon mistaken facts!
There was not a soul busied in all these various reasonings upon the monosyllable which Phutatorius utteredâ ⸺â who did not take this for granted, proceeding upon it as from an axiom, namely, that Phutatoriusâs mind was intent upon the subject of debate which was arising between Didius and Yorick; and indeed as he looked first towards the one and then towards the other, with the air of a man listening to what was going forwardsâ âwho would not have thought the same? But the truth was, that Phutatorius knew not one word or one syllable of what was passingâ âbut his whole thoughts and attention were taken up with a transaction which was going forwards at that very instant within the precincts of his own Galligaskins, and in a part of them, where of all others he stood most interested to watch accidents: So that notwithstanding he looked with all the attention in the world, and had gradually skrewed up every nerve and muscle in his face, to the utmost pitch the instrument would bear, in order, as it was thought, to give a sharp reply to Yorick, who sat over-against himâ ⸺â yet, I say, was Yorick never once in any one domicile of Phutatoriusâs brainâ ⸺â but the true cause of his exclamation lay at least a yard below.
This I will endeavour to explain to you with all imaginable decency.
You must be informed then, that Gastripheres, who had taken a turn into the kitchen a little before dinner, to see
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