Described as “perhaps the most bodiless novel ever written” in its blurb, Sterne’s ‘A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy’ was never going to be to my taste. With no grass of plot and generally dull prose it follows Yorick (a namesake for Sterne himself) as he travels across France. He at no point even makes it to Italy, and though this is because Sterne died while writing this book and hence didn’t conclude it the title could’ve been altered in editing to not just entirely mislead. That being said, though set in Calais and Pairs I feel the setting is completely unimportant for I didn’t notice it coming into play at all and Yorick really could’ve been anywhere. I read this in a day as I themed it to a trip to and from seeing Sterne’s grave in a small Yorkshire village, and it was interesting that ‘Yorick’ is included within his epitaph. 

In addition to its plotlessness, the story also fell short in its dabbling in the genre of sentimentality. Yorick reminded me much of Henry MacKenzie’s ‘The Man Of Feeling’ for on a few occasions he just broke out in tears for no conceivable reason. It was a little less dramatic than MacKenzie however. I was quite amused by the blatant lies about meeting Tobias Smollet and David Hume, and then Sterne’s mockery of them in referring to them as Mundungus and Smelfungus. Why this came about however is nowhere to be found yet again? 

All in all not my genre or style and pretty poorly written, but I did read ‘A Sentimental Journey’ to accompany my journey to see Sterne’s place of burial so at least that fits together nicely.