'Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman Vol. 3' Summary

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman is a comic novel by Laurence Sterne. It follows the life and opinions of Tristram Shandy, a young gentleman who is trying to write his autobiography. However, he is constantly interrupted by his family, friends, and other characters, and the novel digresses into a variety of topics including love, marriage, sex, death, religion, philosophy, morality, and art. The novel is famous for its digressive structure, bawdy humour, and use of metafiction. Sterne lived in an era of Enlightenment rationalism, which he satirizes in the novel through Tristram's eccentric and passionate Uncle Toby, a retired military officer who represents the values of sentimentalism. Tristram's father, Walter Shandy, is a hypochondriac who is obsessed with theories about conception and childbirth. Tristram's mother is a kind and loving woman who is often exasperated by her husband's eccentricities. The novel is full of memorable characters and quotable lines, and it is considered one of the greatest comic novels in English literature.