British literature a genre which developed during the second half of the 18th century. Among the most famous sentimental novels in English are Samuel Richardson's "Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded" (1740), Oliver Goldsmith's "The Vicar of Wakefield" (1766), and Laurence Sterne's "Tristram Shandy" (1759 – 67). Another novel genre also developed in this period. In 1778, Frances Burney (1752–1840) wrote "Evelina", one of the first novels of manners. Fanny Burney's novels' indeed "were enjoyed and admired by Jane Austen". The graveyard poets were a number of pre-Romantic English poets, writing in the 1740s and later, whose works are characterised by their gloomy meditations
Laurence Sterne a resurgence of a much older, Renaissance tradition of "Learned Wit" – owing a debt to such influences as the Scriblerian approach. "A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy" is a less influential book, although it was better received by English critics of the day. The book has many stylistic parallels with "Tristram Shandy", and indeed, the narrator is one of the minor characters from the earlier novel. Although the story is more straightforward, "A Sentimental Journey" can be understood to be part of the same artistic project to which "Tristram Shandy" belongs. Two volumes of Sterne's "Sermons" were published