Irish prose fiction in 1726 published the first great work by an Anglo-Irish writer, "Gulliver's Travels". Though this had no specifically Irish relevance, it set a standard for later writers in English. The eighteenth century saw the birth in Ireland of two distinguished novelists, Laurence Sterne (1713 – 1768) and Oliver Goldsmith (1728 – 1774), both of whom, however, made their careers in England. Despite this, their oeuvre is often included in the Anglo-Irish literary canon. Sterne published "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" (1759–1767), a satire on the biographical novel. Goldsmith, best known as a poet, published "The Vicar of
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman It is only in a Shandean spirit that my matter can be approached. I have to describe something as odd and whimsical as ever entered the brain of Sterne; and if I could, I would gladly lead you to the same affection for my father as you have for Tristram's. Christopher Morley, Editor of the Saturday Review of Literature, wrote a preface to the Limited Edition Club issue of Sterne's classic. That preface appears in Morley's book "Streamlines" published by Doubleday - Doran in 1932, and is titled "Tristram Shandy". In the Hermann Hesse novel "The Journey to the East",