Laurence Sterne's most famous novel is a biting satire of literary conventions and contemporary 18th-century values. A cast of strange characters populate this strangest of novels: gentle Uncle Toby, sarcastic Walter and of course, the pompous, garrulous Tristram himself. Sterne's utterly original novel - the meandering, maddening 'autobiography' of one of literature's oldest comic characters.Doomed to become the `sport of fortune' by an interruption at the crucial moment of conception, Tristram Shandy's life lurches from one mishap to another: his nose crushed by the doctor's forceps during birth, christened with the wrong name, an unfortunate incident involving a slamming sash window. Discover the anti-autobiography of the hilarious Tristram Shandy. WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY TOM MCCARTHY `Tristram Shandy is one of the funniest novels in the English language. It's also one of the first great experimental literary works' Independent