John Hall-Stevenson John Hall-Stevenson John Hall-Stevenson (1718–1785), in his youth known as John Hall, was an English country gentleman and writer. He is memorialised as "Eugenius" in Laurence Sterne's novels "Tristram Shandy" and "A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy". Hall-Stevenson was the son of Joseph Hall of Durham by his marriage to Catherine, sister and heiress of Lawson Trotter of Skelton Castle at Skelton-in-Cleveland, Yorkshire. On 16 June 1735, at the age of seventeen, he matriculated at Jesus College, Cambridge as a fellow-commoner. He quickly struck up a close and lifelong friendship with Laurence Sterne, who was five years older. They
English literature (1775), was performed at Covent Garden and was an instant success. He went on to become the most significant London playwright of the late 18th century with a play like "The School for Scandal". Both Goldsmith and Sheridan reacted against the sentimental comedy of the 18th-century theatre, writing plays closer to the style of Restoration comedy. Sterne published his famous novel "Tristram Shandy" in parts between 1759 and 1767. In 1778, Frances Burney (1752–1840) wrote "Evelina", one of the first novels of manners. Fanny Burney's novels "were enjoyed and admired by Jane Austen". The Romantic movement in English literature of