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, 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.)
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 female 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.
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...
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