Manuscript Draft of the First Part of 'A Sentimental Journey'

Manuscript Draft of the First Part of 'A Sentimental Journey'

With obsessive attention to detail, Sterne makes over 500 insertions, changes and deletions. This revised manuscript was used as the printer’s copy, and there was probably a parallel manuscript for the second part. One section of part one, folios 56‒69, is missing from this copy.

'A SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY', the first part; by Laurence Sterne, M.A. The author's corrected draft, prepared for the press; together with the printed preface and woodcut illustrations of the edition by Nichols.

Laurence Sterne, William Upcott [collector], Clarkson Stanfield [artist], Thomas Gosden [artist], Charles Jacque [artist], Joseph Fussell [artist], John Bastin [engraver], G Nicholls [engraver]

Held By 'British Library'
Shelfmark: Egerton MS 1610

British Library: Restoration and 18th Century Collection Items

1839

Riwayat Katia

A Sentimental Journey by Lawrence Sterne

Illustration

English

Manuscript

The Extracts that have been shown in the manuscript:

Yorick sails from Dover and by three o’clock he is ‘incontestably in France’ eating ‘fricasee’d chicken’ and wondering if he might die of indigestion (ff. 11v‒15r). On the back of the page, Sterne scrawls a footnote explaining Droits d’aubaine, a law by which the Crown could confiscate foreigners’ goods if they died on French soil.

In the chapter entitled ‘The Desobligeant [or coach] Calais’, Yorick writes a belated preface (ff. 32v‒48r). With self-reflexive wit, he exposes the haphazard process of writing the text we’re reading. The preface considers different kinds of traveller, ending with the ‘Sentimental’ one who seeks human ‘commerce’, as Yorick does. Sterne finishes with a flourish, a little like the one in Tristram Shandy (Volume 9, Chapter 4).

https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/laurence-sternes-manuscript-draft-of-the-first-part-of-a-sentimental-journey