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 stylistic ends". A major influence on "Tristram Shandy" is Rabelais' "Gargantua and Pantagruel". Rabelais was by far Sterne's favourite author, and in his correspondence he made clear that he considered himself Rabelais's successor in humorous writing. One passage Sterne incorporated pertains to "the length and goodness of the nose". Sterne had written an earlier piece called "A Rabelaisian Fragment" that indicates his familiarity with the work of the French monk and doctor. Sterne was no friend of gravitas, a quality which excited his disgust. "Tristram Shandy" gives a ludicrous turn to solemn passages from respected authors that it incorporates, as