The Shandean ed. by Peter de Voogd

Solitary Confinement, Aloneness, and Sociability in Sterne

“…These ten letters were first published posthumously as Letters from Yorick to Eliza in 1773, with further editions appearing in 1775; as suggested by the editors of Sterne's correspondence, New and Peter de Voogd, this collection provides an important complement to A Sentimental Journey and the Bramine's Journal, alongside which it 'should be read'. 15 Sterne died in March 1768, the year following his meeting with Eliza, and shortly after the publication of A Sentimental Journey's first two volumes. Eliza's removal to Bombay to join her husband in March 1767, not long after she and Sterne met, doubtless created a complicated emotional state that directly shaped the composition of A Sentimental Journey, the tone and manner of which contrast notably with his earlier work: 'There is evidence throughout the Journal that A Sentimental Journey did not flow from an uncontrolled and uncontrollable Shandean pen; Sterne was laboring to find a different voice, and at least part of that labor was associated with Eliza's absence' (xxvii).…”

“…9 The twisted ethical drive of sensibility found in passages such as 'The Captive' does not solely demonstrate a possible 'failure' of feeling, or a challenge to its pure commerce with the soul and with the deeds that should put moral principles into action. It also provides an opportunity to explore the cognitive and emotional capacities of the identity Yorick has designated for himself ('Sentimental Traveller' [15]), and of human connections in any context, whether in person or in imagination. For New, the starling and captive sequence is integral to A Sentimental Journey's preoccupation with the difficulty of forging connections with others, which New situates in overtly gendered terms in drawing a parallel with Marcel Proust's The Captive: male-female relations propose the most challenging conundrum of navigating between self and others.…”

“…He must set out equipped with the appropriate tools to make the most of the experience, not just capability with the gestural 'language' of true feeling that transcends linguistic barriers, but also (especially) self-honesty. Wherever the traveller may place himself in Yorick's taxonomyidle, inquisitive, spleneticit is only through 'study and reflection' that 'he may be able to determine his own place and rank in the catalogue-it will be one step towards knowing himself' (15).…”