English novel Samuel Richardson (1689–1761), author of the epistolary novels "Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded" (1740) and "Clarissa" (1747–48); Henry Fielding (1707–1754), who wrote "Joseph Andrews" (1742) and "The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling" (1749); Laurence Sterne (1713–1768), who published "Tristram Shandy" in parts between 1759 and 1767; Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774), author of "The Vicar of Wakefield" (1766); Tobias Smollett (1721–1771), a Scottish novelist best known for his comic picaresque novels, such as "The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle" (1751) and "The Expedition of Humphry Clinker" (1771), who influenced Charles Dickens; and Fanny Burney (1752–1840), whose novels "were enjoyed and admired by Jane
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman instance, are reminiscent of the works of the metaphysical poets of the 17th century, and the novel as a whole, with its focus on the problems of language, has constant regard to John Locke's theories in "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding". Arthur Schopenhauer cited "Tristram Shandy" as one of the greatest novels ever written. As its title suggests, the book is ostensibly Tristram's narration of his life story. But it is one of the central jokes of the novel that he cannot explain anything simply, that he must make explanatory diversions to add context and colour to his tale, to