The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

The action covered in Tristram Shandy spans the years 1680-1766. Sterne obscures the underlying chronology of the story, however, rearranging the order of the various pieces of her tale. It also subordinates the basic plot framework by weaving together a series of different stories, as well as materials as disparate as essays, sermons, and legal documents. However, there are two clearly discernible narrative lines in the book.

The first is the plot sequence that includes Tristram's conception, birth, christening, and accidental circumcision. (This sequence extends somewhat further into Tristram's treatment of his "rape", the problem of his upbringing, and his first and second tour of France, but these events are covered less extensively and are not as central to the text) . volumes to cover this chain of events, though comparatively few pages are wasted in actually advancing such a simple plot. The story occurs as a series of accidents, all of which seem calculated to confuse Walter Shandy's hopes and expectations for his son. The shape of its conception is the first disaster, followed by a flattening of its nose at birth, a misunderstanding in which it is given the wrong name, and an accidental collision with a falling window pane. The catastrophes that hit Tristram are actually relatively trivial; only in the context of Walter Shandy's eccentric and pseudoscientific theories do they turn into calamities.

The second main plot consists of the fate of Tristram's Uncle Toby. Most of the details in this story are concentrated in the final third of the novel, although they are alluded to and developed piecemeal from the beginning. Toby receives a groin injury while in the military, and it takes him four years to recover. When he can move again, he retreats to the field with the idea of building a scale replica of the scene of the battle in which he was wounded. He becomes obsessed with recreating those battles, as well as all the history and theory of fortification and defense. However, the Peace of Utrecht holds him back in these "hobby" activities and it is during this pause that he falls under the spell of the widow Wadman. The novel ends with the long-promised account of their ill-fated romance.