A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy
The Monk of Calais (1780) by Angelica Kauffman, depicting Rev. Yorick exchanging snuffboxes with Father Lorenzo "..having a horn snuff box in his hand, he presented it open to me.--You shall taste mine--said I, pulling out my box and putting it into his hand."
Author	Laurence Sterne
Country	Britain
Language	English
Publication date	1768

A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy is a novel by the Irish-born English author Laurence Sterne, written and first published in 1768, as Sterne was facing death. In 1765 Laurence Sterne travelled through France and Italy as far south as Naples, and after returning determined to describe his travels from a sentimental point of view. The novel can be seen as an epilogue to the possibly unfinished work The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, and also as an answer to Tobias Smollett's decidedly unsentimental Travels through France and Italy. (Sterne met Smollett during his travels in Europe, and strongly objected to his spleen, acerbity and quarrelsomeness. He modeled the character of Smelfungus on him.) Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (2536x2524, 265 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): User:Rl/Images A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy ... Maria Anna Angelica Kauffmann (October 30, 1741–November 5, 1807) was a Swiss painter. ... An empty cardboard box Boxes are highly variable receptacles. ... Laurence Sterne Laurence Sterne (November 24, 1713 – March 18, 1768) was an Irish-born English novelist and an Anglican clergyman. ... For other uses, see Country (disambiguation). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Laurence Sterne Laurence Sterne (November 24, 1713 – March 18, 1768) was an Irish-born English novelist and an Anglican clergyman. ... See also: 1767 in literature, other events of 1768, 1769 in literature, list of years in literature. ... Location of the city of Naples (red dot) within Italy. ... An unfinished portrait miniature of Oliver Cromwell by Samuel Cooper. ... The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (or, more briefly, Tristram Shandy) is a novel by Laurence Sterne. ... Tobias Smollett Tobias George Smollett (March 19, 1721 - September 17, 1771) was a Scottish author, best known for his picaresque novels, such as Roderick Random and Peregrine Pickle. ... Travels through France and Italy is a novel by author Tobias Smollett published in 1766. ... The spleen is an organ located in the abdomen, where it functions in the destruction of old red blood cells and holding a reservoir of blood. ... Smelfungus, a name given by Laurence Sterne to Tobias Smollett as author of a volume of Travels through France and Italy, for the snarling abuse he heaps on the institutions and customs of the countries he visited; a name Carlyle assumes when he has any seriously severe criticisms to offer...

The novel was extremely popular and influential and helped establish travel writing as the dominant genre of the second half of the 18th century. Unlike prior travel accounts which stressed classical learning and objective non-personal points of view, A Sentimental Journey emphasized the subjective discussions of personal taste and sentiments, of manners and morals over classical learning. Throughout the 1770s women travel writers began publishing significant numbers of sentimental travel accounts. Sentiment also became a favorite style among those expressing non-mainstream views including political radicalism. Travel writing is a literary genre related to the essay and to the guidebook. ...

The narrator is the Reverend Mr. Yorick, who is slyly represented to guileless readers as Sterne's barely disguised alter ego. The book recounts his various adventures, usually of the amorous type, in a series of self-contained episodes. The book is less eccentric and more elegant in style than Tristram Shandy and was better received by contemporary critics. It was published on February 27, and on March 18 Sterne died. As a literary technique, an author surrogate is a character who expresses the ideas, questions, personality and morality of the author. ...

External links

• A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, available at Project Gutenberg.