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Tristram Shandy cover art

Tristram Shandy

By: Laurence Sterne
Narrated by: Anton Lesser
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Summary

Laurence Sterne’s most famous novel is a biting satire of literary conventions and contemporary 18th-century values. Renowned for its parody of established narrative techniques, Tristram Shandy is commonly regarded as the forerunner of avant-garde fiction. Tristram’s characteristic digressions on a whole range of unlikely subjects (including battle strategy and noses!) are endlessly surprising and make this one of Britain’s greatest comic achievements. A cast of strange characters populate this strangest of novels: gentle Uncle Toby, sarcastic Walter, and of course, the pompous, garrulous Tristram himself. This edition is read by Anton Lesser in a tour de force performance.

Please note: In print, Tristram Shandy is filled with visual, typographical, and compositing jokes - pages that are completely blank, pages that are completely black, misplaced chapters or chapters consisting only of their title, squiggly lines to indicate waving a stick, and much more besides. This audiobook tries in a variety of ways to match Sterne's invention with aural equivalents.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

Public Domain (P)2009 Naxos Audiobooks

What listeners say about Tristram Shandy

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful listening!

Tristram Shandy is one of the great, landmark masterpieces of English fiction writing, though relatively unknown. Of course 18th Century literature isn't everybody's cup of tea, but I love the great care taken over style, allusion and wit found in Sterne, Swift, Defoe, Johnson et al. This book is a wonder of linguistic and stylistic invention and much more interesting in those respects than Ulysses for example, a work which it predates by about 200 years. It's funnier too, being quixotic rather than vulgar - and far less portentous and pretentious. My guess is that Dickens would have loved it - and even been influenced by it. Anyway, if you've tried to read this book before but found it difficult to persevere with, Anton Lesser is here to do all the hard work for you. He does it so well, and reads in so many styles and for so long that he must have been exhausted when they finally let him out of the studio. He really is top notch; in fact it's the kind of performance that creates new fans among people who don't know Sterne at all. I'm looking forward to reading his interpretation of A Sentimental Journey. Brilliant value and great fun!

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Simply splendid

I loved this audio. Having read some extracts of the book it was not exactly what i expected, though I was still not dissapointed. The extracts I had come across were short self contained humerous paragraphs so could not prepare me for the deliberately meandering drawn out gags and observations in the text.

Laurance Stern writes the book in the charming persona of 'Tristram' and Anton Lesser makes a greater job than anybody else I can imagine. It gave me a real 'laugh out loud' moment when the nuns were trying to get the donkey up the hill.

It's not to everyones taste I'm sure, however I think most people would find moments of real pleasure from listening.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great presentation of a masterpiece

True, some things are lost if one does not have the book in front of one, with its black page, the extraordinary punctuation, and so on. But there was a lot more than I never discovered on the page itself. The way Lesser does the 'Shut the door!' (I.4) was simple but brilliant. This is one of the weirdest masterpieces of English literature, but returning to it for the 300th anniversary of Sterne's birth, I chose this audio format. And I have enjoyed it more than ever. Great reading.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Superb chrecterisation

What did you like most about Tristram Shandy?

The book itself of course but the narrator added so much to what can be a difficult read

What was one of the most memorable moments of Tristram Shandy?

Corporal trims falling in love. Or was it lust? So well done

What does Anton Lesser bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Narrative flow especially during some of the more digressive chapters. He illuminated and personalised the whole text

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Over 20 hrs so not really!!!! I will listen to it all again though!

Any additional comments?

One of the best audible renditions of a classic i have ever listened to

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent shaggy dog

Thanks to Anton Lesser for telling this wonderful yarn. Such brilliant, witty and convincing characterisation. Thank you Mr Lesser and thank you Mr Sterne.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Great performance

Difficult, fabulous performance
Good way to get through this classic however some of the invention of the author lost in an audiobook
Blank pages etc

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Pitch-perfect narration: just superb

Stern S’s wit is perfectly conveyed by a bravura performance from Anton Lesser. Text and narrator are a marriage made in heaven. Simply wonderful.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The book is brought to life by brilliant narration

If you are used to Anton Lesser as a serious actor in the classical style, you will be amazed at his wonderful light-hearted and witty narration of this book. It was a joy to listen to and I didn't want it to end.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful book, wonderfully read by Anton Lesser

I was so glad to find Tristram Shandy on Audible. A deliciously funny, clever, truly great book. Uncle Toby is perhaps the most loveable, most sympathetic character in English fiction. Anton Lesser has exactly the right voice for this book. Well done!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The Monty Python of the 18th century

The book(s) were a joy to listen to. Excellently delivered with such an element of entertainment that you could sense that the reader was wonderfully enjoying the experience.
What a joyous and quirky piece of literature and what marvellous and eccentric characters!
The fact that this work of literature was published shows that the reading public of that time were not so ‘stiff upper lip’ as they have often been portrayed.

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