A Sentimental Journey Through France & Italy
New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1929. Presumed First Edition, First printing thus (notable artist/illustrations). Hardcover. Format is approximately 6.5 inches by 9.625 inches. [8], 253, [1] pages. Illustrated endpapers. Illustrations. Bookplate of Lillian Bay Dickinson inside front cover. Booksellers label inside the back cover. Cover has wear and soiling. Front hinge has some weakness. Laurence Sterne (24 November 1713 – 18 March 1768) was an Anglo-Irish novelist and Anglican cleric who wrote the novels The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman and A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, and published sermons and memoirs. He attended Hipperholme Grammar School in the West Riding of Yorkshire. He attended Jesus College, Cambridge on a sizarship, gaining bachelor's and master's degrees. While Vicar of Sutton-on-the-Forest, Yorkshire, he married Elizabeth Lumley in 1741. His ecclesiastical satire A Political Romance infuriated the church and was burnt. With his new talent for writing, he published early volumes of his best-known novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. Sterne traveled to France to find relief from persistent tuberculosis, documenting his travels in A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, published weeks before his death. His posthumous Journal to Eliza addresses Eliza Draper, for whom he had romantic feelings. Sterne died in 1768 and was buried in the yard of St George's, Hanover Square. Sterne departed for France in 1762. Sterne was gratified by his reception in France, where Tristram Shandy had made him a celebrity. Aspects of this trip to France were incorporated into Sterne's novel, A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy. More