W. B. Gerard – författare

Since the publication of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman in 1978, the Florida Edition of the Works of Laurence Sterne has established itself as the standard scholarly text for all matters Sternean. This ninth and final volume maintains the exceptionally high editorial standards of the previous volumes, including comprehensive coverage of existing criticism.--J. A. Downie, editor of The Oxford Handbook of the Eighteenth-Century NovelProvides, for the first time, a definitive edition of Sterne's provocative satire A Political Romance(1759) and a secure canon of his notoriously problematic fugitive writings, established through rigorous analysis of the external and internal evidence for attribution. The texts are meticulously edited, introduced with incisiveness and wit, and annotated with the formidable learning that has distinguished the Florida Edition since its inception. Brings to completion one of the great landmarks in the modern scholarly editing of eighteenth-century literature.--Thomas Keymer, author of Sterne, the Moderns, and the NovelA model of editorial practice: judicious annotation, careful contextualization, and thorough engagement with critical commentary. Even more important is the manner in which this volume attests to the ever-changing nature of scholarly inquiry. Nowhere is this more excitingly evident than in the annotated subscription list, a valuable resource for anyone interested in eighteenth-century literary culture.--Elizabeth Kraft, author of Laurence Sterne Revisited

These thirteen essays have been collected to honor Melvyn New, professor emeritus (Florida), and are prefaced by a description of his scholarly career of more than forty years. Suggesting the wide range of that career, the first eight essays offer various critical perspectives on a diverse group of eighteenth-century authors. These include a reading of Eliot in the shadow of Pope; a comparison of Gainsborough’s final paintings and Sterne’s Sentimental Journey; a study of Johnson and casuistry; a discussion of Smollett’s view of slavery in Roderick Random; a bibliographical study of a Lyttelton poem; a comparison of Swift and Nietzsche; and two essays about Fielding’s Joseph Andrews. Laurence Sterne, the primary focus of Professor New’s scholarship, is also the focus of the final five essays, which treat Sterne in contexts as disparate as the kabbalah, abolitionist discourse, local English church politics, the use of the fragment, and, finally, the culture of modernity.

Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy continues to be as widely read and admired as upon its first appearance. Deemed more accessible than Sterne's Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, and often assigned as a college text, A Sentimental Journey has received its share of critical attention, but—unlike Tristram Shandy—to date it has not been the subject of a dedicated anthology of critical essays. This volume fills that gap with fresh perspectives on Sterne's novel that will appeal to students and critics alike. Together with an introduction that situates each essay within A Sentimental Journey's reception history, and a tailpiece detailing the culmination of Sterne's career and his death, this volume presents a cohesive approach to this significant text that is simultaneously grounded and revelatory.