A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (Annotated)

Laurence Sterne

Summary

First published in 1768, “A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy” is a comic novel by Laurence Sterne. In 1765, Sterne travelled through France and Italy as far south as Naples, and after returning determined to describe his travels from a sentimental point of view.

“A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy,” a combination of autobiography, fiction, and travel writing, chronicles the journey through France of a charming and sensitive young man named Yorick and his servant La Fleur.

The novel was extremely popular and influential and helped establish travel writing as the dominant genre of the second half of the 18th century. It defies conventional expectations of what a travel book might be. Unlike prior travel accounts which stressed classical learning and objective non-personal points of view, “A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy” emphasized the subjective discussions of personal taste and sentiments, of manners and morals over classical learning. An apparently random collection of scattered experiences, it mingles affecting vignettes with episodes in a heartier, comic mode, but coherence of imagination is secured by the delicate insistence with which Sterne ponders how the impulses of sentimental and erotic feeling are psychologically interdependent.

Available since: 01/26/2022.

Other books that might interest you

Kimpa Vita: The Life and Legacy...

Charles River Editors

In 1515, a Portuguese missionary explorer by the name of Father Francisco Álvares entered Ethiopia and took note in the interior of the remnants of a civilization of obviously Christian origin, with living adherents conforming to a branch of the faith clearly founded in antiquity. Could this be the kingdom of Prester John? Father Álvares was intrigued, but he was wary of too fanciful a construction, and he speculated more practically on the legend of King Solomon, the Queen of Sheba, and other such muses. As for the city at the center of the civilization, he called it Aquasumo.  
	As it turned out, the Portuguese were arriving in Western Africa at a time when the Kingdom of Kongo was one of the great pre-colonial empires of Africa, with its geographic range at its greatest extent covering most of northwestern Angola, the western edges of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Congo Republic, and overlapping at times into Cabinda and southern Gabon. It was centralized mostly within the borders of modern Angola, and it is most associated with the early history of that country, notwithstanding its name being applied to the two Congo republics. In fact, the name “Angola” derives from a vassal Kingdom of Kongo, the Ndonga, the kings of which were known as Ngola (hence the adaption to “Angola”).  
	The Portuguese did eventually discover a Christian kingdom elsewhere in Africa, but their Christian influences helped lead to conversion movements in the Kingdom of Kongo, most famously that of Kimpa Vita, a young woman whose story included striking parallels with Joan of Arc. As the leader of a Christian movement, Kimpa Vita became involved in internal political disputes within the Kingdom of Kongo even as she set about spreading Christianity, and her ultimate fate has kept her memory alive as an ideal for later democratic and religious movements across the African continent.

Show book

Summary of Eric Blehm’s Fearless

Falcon Press

Buy now to get the main key ideas from Eric Blehm’s Fearless 
  
In Fearless (2012), Eric Blehm retraces the life of one of the most famed Navy SEALs - Adam Brown. Growing up in Arkansas, Adam developed into a hardworking and brave young man. Yet his involvement in drugs led him to jail and rehab, where he rediscovered his spirituality and his determination. Despite a hard path filled with injuries, relapses, and life-threatening dangers, he became one of the best Navy SEALs his superiors had ever known. Adam’s death in Afghanistan devastated his family, his colleagues, and the nation. But he will always be remembered as a kind, courageous, humanitarian, and patriotic soul.

Show book

On This Day: July 13

Meg Matthais

On This Day: July 13. Daily podcast of historical and noteworthy activity on this calendar day. Murder of Jean-Paul Marat; Live Aid benefit concert held simultaneously in London and Philadelphia; iconic Hollywood sign dedicated

Show book

Some Iraqi forces wage campaign...

PBS NewsHour

As the battle to retake Mosul from the Islamic State nears its end, a new campaign of revenge and retribution is underway by Iraqi forces against those suspected of fighting for or aiding the militant group. Human rights organizations report a number of extrajudicial killings, mass detentions and forced displacement. Special correspondent Marcia Biggs and videographer Alessandro Pavone report.

Show book

American Heroines - The Spirited...

Kay Bailey Hutchison

As long as there has been an America, the indomitable spirit of American women has shaped both the country's history and society. Regardless of the time and place these women were born each excelled in her respective field, making it easier for the next generation. This is what makes them heroines. In American Heroines, Kay Bailey Hutchison presents female pioneers in fields as varied as government, business, education and healthcare, who overcame the resistance and prejudice of their times and accomplished things that no woman–and sometimes no man –– had done before. Hutchison, a pioneer in her own right, became the first woman elected to the United States Senate from the State of Texas. Interspersed with the stories of America's historic female leaders are stories of today's women whose successes are clearly linked to those predecessors. Would Sally Ride have been given the chance to orbit the earth had Amelia Earhart not flown solo across the Atlantic Ocean fifty years before? Had Clara Barton not nursed wounded soldiers on Civil War battlefields, aid may not have reached the millions it did while the Red Cross was in the hands of women like Elizabeth Dole and Bernadine Healy. Had Oveta Culp Hobby not been appointed the first Secretary of the Department of Health and Education by President Eisenhower, the country may have been deprived of such leaders as Secretary of State Madeline Albright and National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice. As a young girl, Senator Hutchison dreamed of an America where the qualifier "the first woman" had become obsolete. The profiles contained in American Heroines, illustrate how her dream is coming true, one courageous step at a time.

Show book

Mmusi Maimane - Prophet or Puppet?

S'Thembiso Msomi

'Mr Maimane, good evening to you and, with the greatest of respect, who are you?'
This is how journalist Jeremy Maggs began his television interview with Mmusi Maimane in 2011 when he was unveiled as the Democratic Alliance's mayoral candidate for Johannesburg. Since then, the charismatic Maimane's rise from obscurity to leader of the DA in 2015 has been nothing short of meteoric.
His anointment as leader of the DA made history, marking the completion of this political party's transformation from a 'white' political party to one whose new leader shared similar experiences to those of the majority of voters. Yet there are those, even within the party, who denounce Maimane as nothing more than a puppet dancing to the tune of former leader Helen Zille and Eastern Cape leader Athol Trollip.
So who is the real Maimane? Experienced political reporter S'thembiso Msomi goes behind the scenes to examine how and why Maimane rose to head up the opposition party. He delves into Maimane's formative years, his time at the pulpit in the church, and his family, to bring substance to the man.
Msomi also examines Maimane's first year as head of the DA in the run-up to the local government elections, assessing how this young man has negotiated the often treacherous waters of political power. Finally, the author attempts to answer these burning questions: is Maimane his own man, and can he deliver the electorate that the DA so fervently desires?

Show book