Sterne

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sterne, by H.D. TraillThis eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it,give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online atwww.gutenberg.netTitle: SterneAuthor: H.D. TraillRelease Date: April 25, 2004 [EBook #12142]Language: English*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STERNE ***Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Bill Hershey and PG Distributed ProofreadersSTERNEBYH.D. TRAILL1882PREFATORY NOTE.The materials for a biography of Sterne are by no means abundant. Of the earlier years of his life the only existing recordis that preserved in the brief autobiographical memoir which, a few months before his death, he composed, in the usualquaint staccato style of his familiar correspondence, for the benefit of his daughter. Of his childhood; of his school-days;of his life at Cambridge, and in his Yorkshire vicarage; of his whole history, in fact, up to the age of forty-six, we knownothing more than he has there jotted down. He attained that age in the year 1759; and at this date begins that series ofhis Letters, from which, for those who have the patience to sort them out of the chronological confusion in which hisdaughter and editress involved them, there is, no doubt, a good deal to be learnt. These letters, however, which extenddown to 1768, the year of the writer's death, contain pretty nearly all ...