People who love to read have two big anniversaries to take note of this month. Cervantes and Shakespeare died within a day of each other in April, 1616. Both occupy gigantic places at the start of modern civilization. They both had large souls and generous minds and took good advantage of the freedom that's part of being an adult human being. Both had inclusive temperaments: they included whole societies in their writings. Neither was a pedant who said, "I write only for rich people or educated folks or city people, and so on". Any literate person can find a place for him- or herself in their writings. Their creations and their characters will surely last for another 400 years.
They've had numerous admirers and followers. Laurence Sterne, the author of a novel called "The Life and Opinions ofTristram Shandy" was one of them. He wrote it in nine parts, one a year, in the middle of the 18th century. I've recently been listening to two audiobooks of this remarkable work, one by the actor Anton Lesser and an older version, read by Peter Barker.
Some authorities call "Tristram Shandy" the first and best experimental novel. It breaks the rules of narrative arrangement as it tells the story of a tightly knit middle class family in rural England and their associates, an environment that Tristram is born into many chapters along in the story. Here are a couple of passages, first from the opening:
"I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me; had they duly considered how much depended on what they were then doing; -- that not only the production of a rational being was concerned in it , but that possibly the happy formation and temperature of his body..." and the sentence rambles on and becomes funnier the more times a person reads it.
And this from part two: "In the second year, my uncle Toby purchased Ramelli and Cataneo....with almost as many more books of military architecture, as Don Quixote was found to have of chivalry, when the curate and barber invaded his library."
As I've been listening to the story, I keep wondering where Sterne found the precedents for his inventive work. He wrote at a time when the art of the novel was fairly new and all of them adhered to a similar logical pattern. An answer to my question came a few hours ago. Sterne acknowledged his love for the work of both Shakespeare and Cervantes.
He wrote about a preacher he invented who was a descendant of the king's jester in "Hamlet". He likewise expressed his admiration for "Don Qjuixote". Ah-ha! These were his masters, of course. He incorporated their largeness of soul and their generosity, their love for freedom and their inventiveness into his own repertoire. (He also claims a kinship with Rabelais, but "Gargantua and Pentagruel" is beyond my experience and the range of my interests -- at least so far.)
Sterne's book is full of humor and family affection. I take from him the insight that the idea of literary tradition isn't solemn or overly serious. (Think of Sancho, Falstaff, or the nurse in "Romeo and Juliet". )Mockery, satire, playfulness are essential elements. Humor helps to renew the tradition. As Cervantes made sport of the tales of chivalry that preceded "Quixote", so did Sterne explode the stale formulae that some writers of his day and before inflicted on what was still a new art form.
As with the great ones he admired, if all he had to offer was clever wit, a love for experimentation, and a literary agenda, we would not be reading his work today. The point is -- what counts most -- is that every page shimmers and burns with humor and with love.
