New Addition: 1834 works of Laurence Sterne

Laurence Sterne, Works, in One Volume; with A Life of the Author, written by himself. 1834. Grigg & Elliot: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Signed "E.G. Munn" twice in front in pen, w/small cartoon of be-wigged man in pencil; signed "Chrs EG. Munn" in back.
 

Originally published in 1759, Tristram Shandy established a tradition of formal and narrative experimentation in fiction that continues in all aspects of anglophone avant-garde writing, and still remains arguably one of the most unpredictable (and yet consummately predictable) novels in the English language. It was also immediately and wildly popular, and has thus exercised a huge influence on British Comedy, its influence pervasive in the alternative comedic tradition of the Goons, Beyond the Fringe, Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Young Ones, Fry & Laurie, et. al.

In the book, Sterne repeatedly related his literary project to that of Rabelais in French and that of Cervantes (another foundational influence on French Romanticism), and the French took to the book naturally. Sterne was one of the most deeply influential forces on French Romanticism in general, and within avant-garde Romanticism especially.

This American copy belonged to Carles E.G. Munn; nothing else is known of Munn, except that he sketched a little cartoon of a be-wigged gentleman on the inside cover (faintly visible in upper left in the photo above)––a style only a generation or two out of date at the time.