This project is an attempt to produce an accurate and useable unannotated facsimile of the first editions of Laurence Sterne's "Tristram Shandy" and "A Sentimental Journey" for general reading or study.
Part of the joy of the original work is that each of the nine volumes of Tristram Shandyis a work of art in itself, and that the pagination, the decorations, and even in some cases the hyphenation of the lines are all meaningful. A Sentimental Journey is perhaps less eccentric in this regard but nonetheless of interest for the student of book production in the 18th C.
This project therefore presents the texts in 11 separate PDF files (nine for TS, and two more for SJ), designed to be read in a PDF viewer that allows you to see two pages at once, like an open book. Each page faithfully follows the line and page breaks in the originals, and the text includes all the dashes, asterisks, blanks, fists, catch-words, and signature-marks.
The spelling and punctuation are all Sterne's (as far as my proof-reading can be sure), but the medial long-s characters are replaced with modern ones. The font used is Linux Libertine, with historical swash ligatures enabled for "ct" and "st", and with the (horrible) "Th" ligature suppressed. Libertine looks reasonably modern, but (apart from the italics) is not too far from the Caslon typefaces used by Dodsley's and Becket's printers. Libertine also has the advantage of being free for use.
Modern editions all tend to correct Sterne's French, but I have tried hard to re-create the French exactly as the first editions have it -- warts and all. For the occasional bits of Greek in TS, I have used the Greek Font Society's version of "Porson". This font dates from the early 19th century, so the characters are more contemporary than those Sterne's printers used, but (in my opinion) very much easier to read. I have not attempted to correct any of the bad grammar, nor the more-or-less random use of accents and breathing marks. But I have fixed the occasional terminal sigma in the middle of a word, and I have rendered the archaic letter forms some times used for "γ", "τ", "π", into the more usual equivalents. Note also that the 18th century printers used various ligatures (for "ου" etc) that are not available in GFS Porson. Other than these alterations, the Greek follows the scanned first editions as closely as possible. So for example, on the title page of Vol. I. the second line of the motto is given correctly as "ἀλλὰ" but in Vol II. the same word is missing both breathing mark and accent in the scan of the original, so I have it as "αλλα".
For the Blackletter type used in Volumes I, II, and IX I have had to resort to Unifraktur Maguntia -- this is a bit too Germanic to be very authentic but it is high quality and free. If I could find a decent English Blackletter font, I would use it instead.
The texts are derived from the Project Gutenberg sources for Sterne's work, extensively corrected by hand using scanned copies of the real first edition volumes that are available through Google Books, and listed (as of June 2023) at Laurence Sterne in Cyberspace.
The text is marked up with LaTeX and compiled into PDFs using the
lualatex engine. I have done the proof-reading by viewing these
PDFs one page at a time, with the scanned originals loaded in
another tab. By carefully adjusting the zoom levels, I can flick
between the two tabs and spot differences more easily.
I have also added the catch words and signature marks at the foot of each page, carefully following the scans of the first editions. I have not (yet) included the smaller printers' marks visible on the scans. These are usually small numbers, and were added by the printers as part of the administration of the printing house. Typically they were used to show which compositor had done which pages (so they could be paid), but it is not clear exactly how they were used in these books.
If you find this project entertaining or useful please consider supporting Shandy Hall which is run as a museum and study-center in Coxwold, North Yorkshire, by the Laurence Sterne Trust.
Various errors and accidents of type-setting are marked with a marginal Ace of Clubs ♣︎ (like the poor squashed nose). I cannot pretend that my marks are comprehensive or complete. If you look at a different edition, you may spot more of them; or you may think I have wrongly called out some of those that I have marked. The originals I used are the scanned copies linked above.
I have not attempted to mark variations of spelling -- only those where the mis-spelled word is "obviously" mis-printed. I've also ignored the more or less random variation between -ic and -ick suffixes, and the "grocers apostrophe's" that abound -- with the exception of "it's" which occurs once in Vol. V and at random throughout Vol. VII and Vol. VIII (and is never correct).
- p.16, last line "ate very" --> "at every"
- p.20, lines 7,8 "left it, seems," --> "left, it seems,"
- p.27, catch word "form," --> "form" -- following page has "form and place" with no comma
- p.35, line 16 "uudoubtedly" --> "undoubtedly", compositor confused u and n
- p.56, catch word "folly:" --> "folly;" -- following page has semi-colon
- p.124, catch word "He," --> "He" -- following page has no comma
- p.144, line 8 opening paren in roman, but closing in italic type
- p.166, line 9 "ofter" --> "after", compositor confused o and a
- p.170, line 16 "his own" --> "their own", Sterne's revision error?
- p.30, catch word "crutch," --> "crutch" -- stray comma on catch word
- p.39, line 6 opening paren in roman, but closing in italic type
- p.50, catch word "“Not" --> "––“Not" -- following page has leading dash
- p.64, line 15 opening paren in italic, but closing in roman type
- p.75, line 2 "aliks" --> "alike", compositor confused s and e
- p.78, line 5 "fifth" --> "second" - Sterne's revision error?
- p.103, line 15 "ours." --> "ours," - or perhaps just no stop?
- p.150, line 15 opening paren in roman, but closing in italic type
- p.153, line 4 "carelesly" -> "carelessly" - comp has used "sl" ligature instead of more awkward "long-s, s, l"
- p.154, line 15 "male-treat" --> "mal-treat" - corrected in later eds
- p.169, line 8 opening paren in roman, but closing in italic type
- p.177, line 7 "pref-" --> "pres-", compositor confused f and long-s (but might just be a mark on the scanned copy)
- p.182, line 7 "Alquise" --> "Alquife", compositor confused long-s and f
- p.5, 2nd last line "quoth" should not be in italics
- p.18, line 8 "Avison" --> "Avison's" - i.e. his edition
- p.19, third para. "my uncle" --> "my father"
- p.39, catch word "the" --> "“ the", leading quotation marks missing from catch
- p.46, line 1 closing paren should have been a comma
- p.51, line 5 opening paren in roman, but closing in italic type
- p.55, line 5 unwanted space in "Hamet"
- p.70, catch word Catch is set to the right of the margin
- p.72, line 15 unwanted , before ;
- p.81, line 15 unwanted space in "regions"
- p.86, line 3 "Agalastes" --> "Agelastes" - Sterne's error here?
- p.88, line 16 "these veral" --> "the several"
- p.94, line 10 "your" --> "you"
- p.99. line 14, 15 final "a" repeated on next line
- p.99. line 16, 17 final "the" repeated on next line
- p.100, line 20 "catchesing" --> "catching", apparently Sterne's error?
- p.110, lines 7,8 "elegant" --> "eloquent", Sterne's error?
- p.112, line 10 "his parlour" --> "the parlour", Sterne's error?
- p.117, line 10 "fitst" --> "first"
- p.123, line 11 "would laid down" --> "would have laid down"
- p.138, second para. "brothet" --> "brother"
- p.138, catch word Catch has "CHAP," instead of "CHAP."
- p.144, line 15 "or" --> "nor" (maybe?)
- p.157, line 9 unwanted space at beginning of line
- p.164, line 12 "Bruscumbilles" --> "Bruscambilles", comp confused italic a and u ? (or stall-man gets it wrong?)
- p.167, line 18 opening paren in italic, but closing in roman type
- p.171, line 1 "poenitet" --> "paenitet", comp confused ae and oe ligatures
- p.171, line 3 closing quote is single ’ instead of double ”
- p.171, line 4 "poeniteat" --> "paeniteat", comp confused ae and oe ligatures
- p.177, line 12 "dialectially" --> "dialectically", comp missed "c"
- p.191, line 5 closing paren is in italic font
- p.3, line 8 "entred" --> "entered" (as two lines later...)
- p.6, catch word "‘ Me-" --> "Me-" - stray inverted comma before M
- p.8, line 4 "titigimus" -> "tetigimus"
- p.19, catch word "’Tis" --> "There’s" -- catch matches 2nd para not first on p.21
- p.20, line 11 "perveneo" -> "pervenio"
- p.21, line 17 "never tell I am got" --> "never till I am got"
- p.30, line 7 opening paren in roman, but closing in italic type
- p.35, line 7 opening paren in roman, but closing in italic type
- p.36, line 16 "cousequences" -> "consequeneces", compositor confused u and n
- p.45, line 2 of fn "Scarpio" -> "Scorpio"
- p.45, line 7 of fn "seclestissima" --> "scelestissima"
- p.46, line 8 first letter of line has slipped down
- p.46, line 15 two digits missing before "83" -- apparently 14?
- p.51, line 12 "cannot" --> "can", Sterne's error? (sense requires positive)
- p.56, line 12 opening paren in roman, but closing in italic type
- p.56, line 17 "Epistasis" --> "Epitasis" -- correct on next page
- p.56, line 18 first letter of line has slipped down
- p.67, line 4 of Ode "move-/-ment" has an extra hyphen
- p.73, line 3 "facy" --> "fancy"
- p.80, line 1 opening paren in roman, but closing in italic type
- p.94, line 4 "anew" --> "enow" ? or "enew" as in Vol. I. ?
- p.96, line 14 "?" --> "!" (maybe...)
- p.107, line 19 "I perceive shall" --> "I perceive I shall"
- p.118, line 21 closing paren is italic font
- p.128, catch word "Or" --> "--Or", dash is missing in catch word
- p.139, line 1 Footnote asterisk (apparently) missing from text
- p.143, line 5 first letter of line has slipped down
- p.175, line 10 "its accord" -> "its own accord"
- p.186, line 21 opening paren in roman, but closing in italic type
- p.201, line 1 "said" --> "sad" (maybe?, also the catch word)
- p.203, line 11 "to'ther" --> "t'other"
- p.208, line 19 opening paren is in italic font
- p.30, line 10 opening paren in roman, but closing in italic type
- p.33, line 2 Missing closing paren after "suspicions."
- p.33, line 5 Missing "it" after "may"
- p.52, line 10 opening paren in italic, but closing in roman type
- p.63, line 5 opening paren in roman, but closing in italic type
- p.70, line 16 "Tristra-pœdia" --> "Tristra-pædia", compositor confused oe and ae ligatures
- p.70, catch-word Unwanted space in "le scence."
- p.73, line 10 opening paren in roman, but closing in italic type
- p.79, line 10 opening paren in italic, but closing in roman type
- p.101, line 17 "Pharoah" --> "Pharaoh" -- Sterne's error?”
- p.106, line 10 no matching closing paren
- p.109, line 15 opening paren in roman, but closing in italic type
- p.109, line 21 " πρώτιςα" --> "πρώτιστα" (comp missed the tau, and confused terminal & medial sigma)
- p.112, line 16 opening paren in roman, but closing in italic type
- p.117, line 15 "it's" --> "its"
- p.127, line 1,2 "Jerico" --> "Jericho"
- p.139, line 17 "Tristra-pœdia" --> "Tristra-pædia", compositor confused oe and ae ligatures
- p.146, line 7 "Yo do?" --> "You do?"
- p.6, line 4 "know-lege" --> "know-ledge" (apparently a typo in Vol VI)
- p.15, line 8 opening paren in roman, but closing in italic type
- p.19, line 15 "neither" --> "either" (sense is positive)
- p.20, catch word catch word not aligned to margin
- p.38, line 5 "Derdermond" --> "Dendermond"
- p.45, line 15 "wishfully" --> "wistfully", comp confused "sh" and "st" ligatures ?
- p.47, line 20 "knowlege" --> "knowledge"
- p.47, line 10 "know-lege" --> "know-ledge"
- p.132, line 16 "diligentias" --> "diligentius", Sterne's error copying from Burton?
The scanned edition used includes a list of Errata at the start, discussed below.
-
Titlepage "Dehont" --> "Dehondt" ???
-
p.5, line 6 Missing opening paren before "holding"
-
p.14, line 6 "it’s" --> "its"
-
p.14, line 16 "it’s" --> "its"
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p.33, last line - This is the first erratum in the edition, which says: delete "and". But that does not really help!
Perhaps change "e’er" (ever) --> "ere" (meaning before) -
p.41 line 13 Greek lenis breathing marks set as apostrophes
-
p.43, line 6 opening paren in italic, but closing in roman type
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p.71, line 3 This is the second erratum -- "striking" --> "sticking"
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p.83, line 1 "Andouillets" --> "Andoüillets"
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p.85, line 7 "Andouillets" --> "Andoüillets"
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p.85, line 9 "then" -->"than"
-
p.86, line 14 "Andouillets" --> "Andoüillets"
That these three are all in signature "G" (pp 81--96) perhaps suggests that the typesetter did not have (or ignored) the diacritic ü character when "G" was being composed.
-
p.94, line 1 "it’s" --> "its"
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p.104 line 10 "Cotê roti" --> Côte-Rôtie" (possibly Sterne? perhaps comic?)
-
p.105 line 9 "Andoüillet’s" --> "Andoüillets’s" ??
-
p.110 line 13 "Jesuists" --> "Jesuits"
-
p.116 line 12 quotation marks never closed
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p.123 line 14 "Andoüillet’s" --> "Andoüillets’s" ??
-
p.125 line 1 Chapter number jumps from XXXII to XXXIV
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p.127 line 2 "Avignion" --> "Avignon"
-
p.128 catch word "And" --> "--And", leading dash is missing
-
p.132 line 15 "Avignion" --> "Avignon"
-
p.142, line 1 "it’s" --> "its"
-
p.142, catch word "For" should be in italics to match next page
-
p.145 line 3 "Avignion" --> "Avignon"
-
p.146 thrice "Avignion" --> "Avignon" (and once correctly on the same page)
-
p.147 line 4 "Avignion" --> "Avignon"
-
p.148 line 5 "the lord" --> "the Lord", probably, given the "He" on the next line.
-
p.151 line 16 repeated "of" at end of line 15
The seven uses of "Avignion" outnumber the three uses of "Avignon".
- Titlepage "Dehont" --> "Dehondt" ???
- p.11 line 5 "so see" --> "to see"
- p.12 last line quotation marks never closed
- p.18 last line "run-ing" --> "run-ning" doubled "n" lost at page break
- p.34 line 13 "inflamgatory" --> "inflammatory" -- This is the third
-
erratum from the list at the start of Vol. VII - p.35 line 5 second line is indented instead of flush to LH margin
- p.47, line 8 "it’s" --> "its"
- p.48, line 16 "it’s" --> "its"
- p.51, last line "it’s" --> "its"
- p.83, line 17 "it’s" --> "its"
- p.85, line 11 "Its" --> "It’s" (this error is the other way round)
- p.111, line 16 "incidesset" --> "incidisset", Sterne's error copying from Burton?
- p.112, catch word "--There" --> "---there" (to match the next word)
- p.117, line 5 "fefell" --> "befell"
- p.124, line 15 "her," --> "her", unwanted comma at line end
- p.131, line 5 final "the" repeated on next line
- p.143, line 15 "it’s" --> "its"
- p.156, line 6 "it’s" --> "its"
The "it's" (which are never correct) are mainly in Vol VII and VIII
Vol its it's
----------------
I 13 0 Dodsley 1760
II 24 0 Dodsley 1760
III 22 0 Dodsley 1761
IV 24 0 Dodsley 1761
V 15 1 Becket 1762
VI 19 0 Becket 1762
VII 16 4 Becket 1765
VIII 13 6 Becket 1765
IX 13 0 Becket 1767
----------------
Total 159 11
Sterne's usual abbreviation for "it is" is "’tis" (400 occurrences). Uncle Toby does once say (Vol VIII, p.85) "It's high time I should [hear Trim's story]. Unfortunately the setter has this as "Its high time I should", as noted above.
- 2nd page of Dedication, line 1 "riori" --> "ori" -- extra "ri" carried over in page break
- p.9, line 10 "assimulated" --> "assimilated", but possibly Sterne's choice of spelling, see below
- p.11, line 18 "Le Fevre's" --> "Le Fever's" -- perhaps? (to match in previous volumes)
- p.17, after flourish Missing catch-word -- "A" (possibly deliberate?)
- p.22, line 3 "Le Fevre's" --> "Le Fever's" -- as above, the only occurrences in Vol. IX
- p.55, line 15 "εξωτερικη πραξις" --> "ἐξωτερικὴ πρᾶξις" -- comp has abandoned any attempt at Greek breathing marks or accents
- p.59, line 3 final "e" in the line has slipped
- p.87, catch word "Turn" -> "--Turn", catch is missing a dash
- p.90, line 14 "been" --> "had been" (word dropped at line break)
- p.99, line 14 "Garagantna" --> "Garagantua" (compositor confused u and n, again!)
- p.100, last line Missing catch-word -- "The", perhaps in Blackletter type?
- p.140, line 2 opening paren in roman, but closing in italic type
Quite often it is impossible to distinguish mistakes from Sterne's wit; what are we to make (for example) of the word "assimulation" on page nine of Vol IX? It might be a mistake, but then it might also be a happy accident. Or more probably learned wit. My Latin dictionary suggests that there was some classical confusion between the verbs "assimilare" and "assimulare". And Sterne uses the phrase "electrical assimilation" (spelled thus) on page nineteen of Vol II, but it is possible in Vol IX that he was unable to resist a word that combines "ass" and "mule".
In SJ, the various errors and accidents of type-setting are also marked with a marginal Ace of Clubs ♣︎, and again I cannot pretend that my marks are comprehensive or complete. If you look at a different edition, you may spot more of them; or you may think I have wrongly called out some of those that I have marked. The originals I used are the scanned copies linked above.
I have not attempted to mark variations of spelling -- only those where the mis-spelled word is "obviously" mis-printed. The spelling of French words and place-names is particularly idiosyncratic, and I have attempted to follow the scanned first editions exactly -- so I have not flagged missing or incorrect accent marks, nor have a flagged Sterne's spelling on Montreuil (except for the misprint of "Montreal").
The two volumes of SJ follow the practice adopted in Vol. IX of TS of starting each chapter at the top of a new page -- so there are many nearly empty pages -- but the chapters are not numbered, instead they have one or two headlines, usually set in letter-spaced upper case letters as a display.
With two exceptions ("THE" on p.49 and "NAM-" on p.122) these chapters do not get catch words in Vol I. However, in Vol II, they all get catch words with the exception of p.11, which is missing a "THE" for the next chapter.
The majority of typographical errors are in Vol. II -- perhaps it was done by a different team, or in a rush, or perhaps Sterne was less careful in the proof reading.
-
p.85, line 7 -- "desart" --> "desert" (as line 17 of same page)
-
p.98, line 2 -- "not ill of" --> "not ill off" (maybe..)
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p.107, line 6 - "prince of God" --> "prince of gods" -- the fragment of Greek, that this is from, has "gods" plural, but either Sterne or the typesetters changed it to "God" singular and capitalized. You could count "prince of God" as a sort of angel (like thrones and dominations...), but the combination "prince of God and men" makes very little sense.
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p.4, line 5 -- "for if is a good one" --> for if it is a good one" Typesetter confused by sequence of 3 short "i" words
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p.9, lines 1 and 4 -- "R****" set in italics for no clear reason
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p.9, line 13 -- "de Cœur" --> "du Cœur" (as on p.3)
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p.13, line 9 -- "sat" --> "set", typesetter confused "a" and "e"
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p.30, lines 1 and 2 -- typesetter repeated word "of" across line break
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p.33, line 6 -- "himself" --> "myself" -- Sterne's error?
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p.35, lines 12 and 13 -- typesetter repeated word "a" across line break
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p.36, line 2 -- "it’s" --> "its" -- green grocer’s apostrophe
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p.36, line 18 -- "Lord’s C’s" --> "Lord C’s" -- extra apostrophe
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p.42, line 7 -- "gaity" --> gaiety" -- typographic slip? idiosyncratic spelling?
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p.71, line 6 -- "two Yorick’s" --> "two Yoricks" -- green grocer’s apostrophe
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p.84, line 4 -- "poli.s" --> "polis" -- stray full stop in line?
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p.85, lines 11 and 12 -- typesetter repeated word "the" across line break
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p.93, line 16 -- full stop not needed with long dash for the aposiopesis
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p.97, lines 9 and 10 -- typesetter repeated word "into" across line break
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p.119, catch line -- "THE" does not match "LE DIMANCHE" on p.120
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p.120, line 6 -- "Montreal" --> "Montriul" -- mis-correction for "Montreuil" Sterne has Montriul (for "Montreuil") everywhere except here.
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p.126, lines 12 and 13 -- "inte-terest" --> "inte-rest" -- typesetter has repeated syllable across line break
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p.136, line 1 -- "boats-man" --> "boat-man" (or possibly boatswain ??)
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p.140, line 18 -- "must me read" --> "must be read" -- typesetter apparently confused by "me" in line above.
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p.145, line 3 -- "thou canst get" --> "thou canst get it" -- or "them"? Possibly this is deliberate, and La Fleur has interrupted in haste.
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p.153, lines 3 and 4 -- typesetter repeated word "the" across line break (again)
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p.164, catch line -- Missing leading dash to match next page
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p.177, line 4 -- "steep’d to much" --> "steep’d too much"
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p.179, line 5 -- "farewel" --> "farewell"
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p.181, line 7 -- "sufferings has" --> "suffering has" (or "sufferings have")
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p.198, line 2 -- "give alook" --> "give a look"
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p.207, line 16 -- "by way asseveration" --> "by way of asseveration"