Lot Details
Lot 230
STERNE, LAURENCE The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy.
[York] & London: [volumes 1-2 without imprint], [volumes 3-4: R. and J. Dodsley], [volumes 5-9: T. Becket and P.A. Dehondt], 1760-67. First edition, volumes 5, 7, and 9 signed by Sterne, first state of volume 7 with errata on the verso of the title page. Nine volumes. Later speckled calf in period style by Zaehnsdorf, the boards gilt ruled, the spines gilt with raised bands and gilt lettered labels, all edges gilt, cloth slipcase. 6 x 3.5 inches (15 x 9 cm); Vol. 1: [2], 179; Vol. 2: [2], 182; Vol. 3: [3]-202; Vol. 4: [4], [1]-146, 156-220; Vol. 5: [6], 150; Vol. 6: [4], 155; Vol. 7: [2], 160; Vol. 8: [2], 156; Vol. 9: [8], 145; engraved frontispiece in volume 3 by Ravenel after Hogarth, half-titles in volumes 4, 5, 6, and 9, the only volumes in which they were issued. The front board detached on volume 1 which also has a few small chips, chip to spine on volume 3, light rubbing and wear to joints, corners and spines, upper corner of the first few leaves of volume 6 creased, the contents generally clean, with an occasional pale spot or lightly toned leaf.
A complete copy of the first edition of Laurence Stern's comedic bildungsroman, often described as the first modern novel. Stern's unprecedented use of printing techniques as literary device - the black, the marbled and the blank page, as well as his use of typographic symbols and missing pages - serves to disrupt and control the narrative of the novel, all the while making the reader acutely aware of the book as a material object. No later edition of Tristram Shandy can faithfully reproduce these aspects of the first edition, where each and every copy's marbled page, "motley emblem of my work," is as unique as our own readings of the novel.
C The Julius and Theodore Cohn Library
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