What is it about?
The narrator of Tristram Shandy tells readers how to proceed through the book. This handmade edition of Volume 1 is designed to make the reader follow these instructions: reread a passage, jump from one passage to another, etc. It uses hand-marbled paper, buttons, ribbon, loops of string, and detachable inserts to encourage interaction with the book and to emphasize the sensory experience of reading.
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Why is it important?
Laurence Sterne's novel highlights practices of reading that we usually take for granted. This handmade book calls attention to the cognitive work of reading--drawing connections between distant passages, "mapping" the narrative in time and space--and to the sensory and physical attributes of physical books. The discussion of this Tristram Shandy simultaneously illuminates elements of this handmade book and provokes thought about the operations involved in reading, especially reading physical books.
Perspectives
Fluent, experienced readers cease to notice the complexity of reading practices. This essay provides an opportunity to dwell on those practices through discussion of a book designed to slow readers down and to embody reading practices in unexpected physical formats.
Cynthia Malone
College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Multisensory Tristram Shandy, CounterText, December 2016, Edinburgh University Press,
DOI: 10.3366/count.2016.0065.
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