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 misunderstandings, which find humour in the opposing temperaments of Walter—splenetic, rational, and somewhat sarcastic—and Uncle Toby, who is gentle, uncomplicated, and a lover of his fellow man. In between such events, Tristram as narrator finds himself discoursing at length on sexual practices, insults, the influence of one's name, and noses, as well as explorations of obstetrics, siege warfare, and philosophy as he struggles to marshal his material and finish the story of his life. Though Tristram is always present as narrator and commentator, the book contains little of his life, only the story of a trip through France and accounts