A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy

It is the story of Sterne's fictional travel through borh countries, particularly France. Sterne made two trips within the continent, in 1762-64 and 1765-66, but the book is not about his errands, but those of parson Yorick's (a character in Tristram Shandy). With a less acid and outrageous humor than in his previous work, Sterne anyway mixes the picaresque with an ironic and, frequently, hilarious philosophical irony. Yorick begins by trying to get a passport, since technically England and France are at war, although no bellicose action takes place at the moment. The first part tells of Yorick's adventures in Calais, where he meets a strange monk with whom he exchanges snuff boxes (which will later play a significant role), and a beautiful woman travelling with her brother. Later on, in the town of Montriul (Montreuil), he picks up a peculiar servant, La Fleur, who will solve some problems and create others. Through several towns, and in Paris, Yorick has funny encounters with different characters, especially women, and more especially still, a cute little maid with whim he has a short romance.Along the book, Yorick consistently makes fun of French habits, so liberal and different from England's. He is a master of deceit and understatement, and behind the proclaimed sentimentalism of the journey it is not hard to see a trip much more in search of adventures and romance than education or cultivation. The bok is a privileged window into a pre-Revolutionary France, full of beggars, prostitutes, and assorted criminals, from the amused and advantageous point of view of a cynical and mischievous parson from York. What little is sentimental in the journey is more in the imposture and luridness of the characters, in particular the narrator, than in any process of Romantic apprenticeship, since Romanticism was still not realized, nor would it be possible to imagine a Romantic Sterne. (Amazon)