Laurence SterneVerified

Sterne abandons narrative convention entirely to create a radically digressive masterpiece where the hero's birth takes 400 pages, opinions interrupt the plot constantly, and typography itself becomes part of the joke. A novel so experimental it makes postmodern fiction look conventional.

A humorous novel published between 1759 and 1767, presented as a memoir by Tristram Shandy, who starts with his conception and reaches his birth only in the third volume. Digressions fill it, including his father's quarrels with Uncle Toby, and it uses blank pages and unfinished sentences.