STERNE, Laurence (1713-1768)

Lot 106
13.12.2023 11:00UTC +00:00
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£ 3 528
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1105571
Lot 106 | STERNE, Laurence (1713-1768)
Estimate value
£ 3 000 – 5 000
STERNE, Laurence (1713-1768)

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. [York] and London: [volumes 1-2 without imprint], R. and J. Dodsley [volumes 3-4], T. Becket and P.A. Dehondt [volumes 5-9], 1760-1767.

First edition of the greatest comic novel of the 18th century, in the first state with Sterne's signature in ink, as usual, at the head of the opening chapters of vols. 5, 7, and 9. Publication on 1 January 1760 brought Sterne instant recognition. Although Johnson, Goldsmith, Richardson, and Horace Walpole were among those who disliked the book, Sterne went to London to be feted by society, invited to court and have his portrait painted by Reynolds. His genius was sharply felt by Thomas Jefferson, who called Sterne’s writings ‘the best course of morality that was ever written,’ while his works also influenced figures as diverse as Goethe, Karl Marx and Virginia Woolf. Rothschild 1970.



9 volumes, octavo (150 x 94mm). Half-titles in vols. 4, 5, 6 and 9 as issued, vol. 1 with the black leaf E5 and extra-illustrated with frontispiece engraving from the second edition, vol. 3 with the engraved plate after Hogarth and the marbled leaf between L4 and L5, vol. 7 in the first state with errata on title verso, vol. 9 dedication leaf in state Nowell-Smith’s setting (a) (occasional faint spotting). 20th-century panelled calf by Zaehnsdorf, all edges gilt. Provenance: Charles Plumptre Johnson (London lawyer and bibliophile, 1853-1938; bookplate).

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