Tristram Shandy: Book 7: Chapters 36-43 Summary & Analysis

Chapter 36. Tristram intends to add his conversation with the commissary to his remarks but realizes that his remarks are no longer in his pocket. He cannot find them nearby or in the inn and begins to panic.

Chapter 37. Tristram realizes that he left his remarks in the post-chaise that he sold to the chaise-vamper. He leaves a blank space on the page for the reader to insert a curse of their choosing. He despairs over his lost remarks, wishing he had at least sold them to a bookseller or publisher. Tristram goes looking for the chaise-vamper to find his remarks.

Chapter 38. When Tristram finds the chaise-vamper’s house it is locked up for a Catholic holiday. The whole city is out dancing around maypoles. Tristram sits down outside the chaise-vamper’s house and waits, thinking about his circumstances. After half an hour the chaise-vamper’s wife returns from the celebrations to take the papilliotes out of her hair. Tristram realizes she is using his remarks for papilliotes, but he is thankful that they have not entered her head any deeper than her hair. She returns them to him, twisted and crumpled, and he declares that once they are published, they will be twisted even more.

Chapter 39. At last, Tristram prepares to go see the great clock and the Chinese history, but his valet François points out that he only has an hour left in Lyons. Tristram decides to skip the clock and go straight to the library, but it is closed because the Jesuits all have cholic.

Chapter 40. Tristram sends François to the boat and heads to the tomb of the two lovers alone. Overjoyed to finally see it, he suffers a harsh disappointment when he arrives and finds that the tomb is gone, and wishes Toby was there to whistle Lillabullero.

Chapter 41. Tristram leaves Lyons by boat and arrives at Avignon. Tristram says the reader will soon picture him riding a mule while being watched with suspicion by a gun-toting farmer, which Tristram finds understandable given the condition of his breeches. Tristram describes Avignon as extremely windy, to the extent that conversations are often inaudible. He also says that everyone in town is a Duke, Marquis, Baron, or Count.

Chapter 42. Tristram can now explore the south of France by mule at his own pace, having left Death far behind (Death, for his part, has given up such a troublesome pursuit). Tristram roams Languedoc on his mule, enjoying the flat expanse of the plain despite its hostility to travel writing, which is always looking for new towns and sights to describe.

Chapter 43. Tristram continues on his way across the plain, stopping to talk to a drum-maker, some Franciscans, and to haggle after buying some figs. The figs turn out to have eggs in the basket underneath, which Tristram does not want, but the seller demands the basket back. Tristram says the reader will have to wait for his collection of stories about the plain, Plain Stories, to learn how he solved this problem. For now, Tristram is focused on getting to the story of Toby’s amours. Tristram describes his time on the plain as the most productive of his life, as he stops to talk with everyone he meets, and the plain is a veritable city for him.

Tristram is on the road from Nismes to Lunel at sunset when his mule refuses to continue, as it is scared of the fife and tambourine music nearby. Tristram, still unwilling to hit a mule, gets off and goes to join the dancing. He goes up to a young peasant woman who tells him her group needs a cavalier, and Tristram happily agrees to play the part. The woman is named Nanette and has a slit open in her petticoat. She and Tristram dance and carouse, and he wonders why he should not spend the rest of his days like this on the plain. He continues dancing across the plain, eventually returning to his residence in Avignon. There, he resolves to immediately, and in a straight line without more digressions, tell the story of Toby’s amours.