A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy Writings of Mr. Sterne". In the 1880s, American writer Elizabeth Robins Pennell and her artist husband Joseph Pennell undertook a journey following Sterne's route. Their travels by tandem bicycle were turned into the book "Our sentimental journey through France and Italy" (1888). Viktor Shklovsky considered Sterne one of his most important precursors as a writer, and his own "A Sentimental Journey: Memoirs, 1917-1922" was indebted to both Sterne's own "Sentimental Journey" and "Tristram Shandy". A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy is a novel by Laurence Sterne, written and first published in 1768,
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