A Chronology of Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

(a writing by Julian Darius, made available at persiancaesar.com on 15 February 2001)

A chronology of the events within the world of Sterne's Tristram Shandy fundamentally misses the point. This document, it must be noted, is, however nobly, radically misguided. Yet it is precisely because plot is so jumbled within the novel, subordinated to digressions and play, that just such a chronology serves to cement the reader's grasp on that elusive narrative.
Though a biographical reading of the novel seems similarly misguided, the text invites just such a reading. As such, I have provided a few "real world" dates and events, such as those concerning publication, but I have enclosed all such information within brackets to easily distinguish and subordinate it. Citations are provided in parentheses.

1580the date given for Albosius's writing in the note stating "The author is here twice mistaken;-----" and "Mr. Tristram Shandy has been led into this error" (II:19)
1706: SummerLe Fever's story and death (VI:1-13)
[1713][Sterne born in Ireland]
1717: SeptemberTristram's parents' marriage contract: "The fact was this, That, in the latter end of September, 1717, which was the year before I was born, my mother having carried my father up to town much against the grain,-----he peremptorily insisted upon the clause;-----so that I was doomed, by marriage articles, to have my nose squeezed as flat to my face as if the destinies had actually spun me without one." (I:15)
1718: March: first Sunday / first MondayTristram conceived: "I was begot in the night, betwixt the first Sunday and the first Monday in the month of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighteen." (I:4)
1718: November 5Tristram born: "On the fifth day of November, 1718, which to the era fixed on was as near nine calendar months as any husband could in reason have expected,----was I, Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, brought forth into this scurvy and disastrous world of ours." (I:5)
1733: April 10the Doctors of the Sorbonne decide in favor of prenatal baptism: note and excerpted documents (I:20)
1759: March 9Tristram writing: "it is no more than a week from this very day in which I am now writing this book for the edification of the world,-----which is March 9, 1759,-----that my dear, dear Jenny, observing I looked a little grave," (I:17)
1759: March 26Tristram writing: "that observation is my own;------and was struck out by me this very rainy day, March 26, 1759, and betwixt the hours of nine and ten in the morning" (I:21)
[1759: December][Volume I and II published]
[1761: January][Volume III and IV published]
[1761: December][Volume V and VI published]
[1765: January][Volume VII and VIII published]
[1766: July 23][Stern writes a friend: "At present I am in my peaceful retreat, writing the ninth volume of Tristram -- I shall publish but one this year, and the next I shall begin a work [A Sentimental Journey] of four volumes, which when finished, I shall continue Tristram with fresh spirit."1]
[1766: August 30][Stern writes his publisher: "I shall publish the 9th and 10 of Shandy the next winter"2]
[1767: January 6][In the same month of IX's publication, Stern wrote an unknown someone: "I miscarried of my tenth volume by the violence of a fever I just got through."3]
[1767: September 10][Richard Griffith, having recently met and befriended Sterne, wrote to a friend: "Tristram and Triglyph [the name of Griffith's narrator] have entered into a League offensive and defensive, against all opponents in Literature. We have, at the same time, agreed never to write any more Tristrams or Triglyphs. I am to stick to Andrews and he to Yoric."4]
[1767: December][Volume IX published]
[1768][Sterne dies in London]
1 Letters of Laurence Sterne, ed. Lewis P. Curtis (Oxford, 1935), p. 284. [BACK]
2 Letters of Laurence Sterne, ed. Lewis P. Curtis (Oxford, 1935), p. 288. [BACK]
3 Letters of Laurence Sterne, ed. Lewis P. Curtis (Oxford, 1935), p. 294. [BACK]
4 See J. M. S. Tomkins, 'Triglyph and Tristram,' TLS, 11 July 1929 -- according to Wayne Booth's "Did Sterne Complete Tristram Shandy?" in Modern Philology 48, pages 172-183, originally published in 1951.[BACK]