Laurence Sterne

Laurence Stern was born in 1713 in Clonmel, a town in County Tipperary, Ireland. He earned a BA in 1737 and an MA in 1740 from Jesus College, Cambridge, in England. Between earning his two degrees, he became an Anglican priest. He subsequently served as a priest in various parishes in Yorkshire, England. In 1759, he published his first novel, A Political Romance, which satirized English church politics and was immediately censored. Later that same year, he published the first two volumes of his most famous novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, celebrated for its experimental, rambling style and bawdy humor. Subsequent volumes of Tristram Shandy—there are nine in all—were published in 1761, 1765, and 1767. In 1762-1763 Sterne traveled through France, and in 1765 he toured France and Italy, journeys that partially inspired his satirical and sentimental travelogue, A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy by Mr. Yorick (commonly known by the shorter title A Sentimental Journey). Despite being married to another woman, he began an intense flirtation with Mrs. Elizabeth (Eliza) Draper in 1767. In February 1768, he published the first two volumes of A Sentimental Journey, in which the narrator makes several direct references to a beloved “Eliza.” He died a month later.