Summary
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Laurence Sterne's novel Tristram Shandy. Sterne's comic masterpiece is an extravagantly inventive work which was hugely popular when first published in 1759. Its often bawdy humour, and numerous digressions, are combined with bold literary experiment, such as a page printed entirely black to mark the death of one of the novel's characters. Dr Johnson wrote that "Nothing odd will do long. Tristram Shandy did not last" - but two hundred and fifty years after the book's publication, Tristram Shandy remains one of the most influential and widely admired books of the eighteenth century.
With:
Judith Hawley Professor of Eighteenth-Century Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London
John Mullan Professor of English at University College London
Mary Newbould Bowman Supervisor in English at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | Thank you for downloading this episode of In Our Time. |
| 0:38.7 | For more details about in our time and for our terms of use please go to BBC.co. UK slash radio for. I hope you enjoy |
| 0:45.9 | the program. Hello in 1760 a London periodical called The Monthly Review |
| 0:51.6 | published a review of two books by an Anglican clergyman. |
| 0:54.8 | The first, a modest volume of sermons, was described as causing the greatest outrage against |
| 0:59.6 | sense and decency that's been offered since the first establishment of Christianity. |
| 1:04.4 | The second, a novel, was said to be not only scandalously indecent, but absolutely dull. |
| 1:09.6 | We advised the author to remain in way he is in his swaddling clothes without insulting the public any further. |
| 1:15.9 | So insults were the, so insulted were the public that they bought the novel in their droves. |
| 1:20.3 | Its title, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, gentleman, and its author, |
| 1:23.8 | Lawrence Stern, was celebrated and reviled in equal measure. |
| 1:27.4 | It's an extraordinary book, full of body humour, literary experiment and lengthy digressions. |
| 1:31.9 | Although some people condemned the work as obscene or trivial, later writers, including Voltaire, Coleridge, from Dickens, thought it a comic masterpiece and today it's widely regarded as a landmark in the history of the novel. With me to discuss |
| 1:44.7 | this from Shandéa, Judith Hawley, professor of 18th century literature at |
| 1:48.7 | Royal Holloway University of London, John Mullen, professor of English at University College London, and Mary Newbold, |
| 1:55.2 | Bowman Supervisor in English at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.