most wholly so; and nothing, worthy to be dignified
by the name of a _Life of Sterne_, seems ever to have been published,
until the appearance of Mr. Percy Fitzgerald's two stout volumes,
under this title, some eighteen years ago. Of this work it is hardly
too much to say that it contains (no doubt with the admixture of a
good deal of superfluous matter) nearly all the information as to the
facts of Sterne's life that is now ever likely to be recovered. The
evidence for certain of its statements of fact is not as thoroughly
sifted as it might have been; and with some of its criticism I, at
least, am unable to agree. But no one interested in the subject of
this memoir can be insensible of his obligations to Mr. Fitzgerald
for the fruitful diligence with which he has laboured in a too long
neglected field.

H.D.T.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

(1713-1724.)

BIRTH, PARENTAGE, AND EARLY YEARS.

CHAPTER II.

(1724-1733.)

SCHOOL AND UNIVERSITY.--HALIFAX AND CAMBRIDGE.

CHAPTER III.

(1738-1759.)

LIFE AT SUTTON.--MARRIAGE.--THE PARISH PRIEST.

CHAPTER IV.

(1759-1760.)

"TRISTRAM SHANDY," VOLS. I. AND II.

CHAPTER V.

(1760-1762.)

LONDON TRIUMPHS.--FIRST SET OF SERMONS.--"TRISTRAM SHANDY," VOLS. III.
AND IV.--COXWOLD.--"TRISTRAM SHANDY," VOLS. V. AND VI.--FIRST VISIT TO
THE CONTINENT.--PARIS.--TOULOUSE.

CHAPTER VI.

(1762-1765.)

LIFE IN THE SOUTH.--RETURN TO ENGLAND.--"TRISTRAM SHANDY," VOLS. VII.
AND VIII.--SECOND SET OF SERMONS

CHAPTER VII.

(1765-1768)

FRANCE AND ITALY.--MEETING WITH WIFE AND DAUGHTER.--RETURN TO
ENGLAND.--"TRISTRAM SHANDY," VOL. IX.--"THE SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY"

CHAPTER VIII.

(1768.)

LAST DAYS AND DEATH

CHAPTER IX.

STERNE AS A WRITER.--THE CHARGE OF PLAGIARISM.--DR. FERRIAR'S
"ILLUSTRATIONS"

CHAPTER X.

STYLE AND GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS.--HUMOUR AND SENTIMENT

CHAPTER XI.

CREATIVE AND DRAMATIC POWER.--PLACE IN ENGLISH LITERATURE

STERNE.

CHAPTER I.

BIRTH, PARENTAGE, AND EARLY YEARS.

(1713-1724.)

Towards the close of the month of November, 1713, one of the last of
the English regiments which had been detained in Flanders to supervise
the execution of the treaty of Utrecht arrived at Clonmel from
Dunkirk. The day after its arrival the regiment was disbanded; and
yet a few days later, on the 24th of the month, the wife of one of its
subalterns gave birth to a son. The child who thus early displayed th