Laurence Sterne was an Anglo-Irish novelist and Anglican clergyman who became one of the most distinctive voices of eighteenth-century literature. Born into a military family, he spent his youth traveling between Ireland and England. He later attended Jesus College, Cambridge, on a sizarship, earning both his bachelor's and master's degrees. Following his education, Sterne was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1738 and took up the position of Vicar of Sutton-on-the-Forest in Yorkshire. In 1741, he married Elizabeth Lumley. During this period, he briefly engaged in political writing for the Whig party before abandoning politics in 1742 to focus on his clerical duties.
Sterne's literary career began in earnest in 1759 with the publication of A Political Romance, an ecclesiastical satire that embarrassed local church authorities and was subsequently burned. This controversy, however, helped Sterne discover his talent for comedy. At the age of forty-six, he dedicated himself to humor writing, publishing the first volumes of his masterpiece, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, later that same year. The experimental, highly digressive novel became an immediate sensation, eventually expanding to nine volumes published over nearly a decade and securing Sterne's status as a major literary celebrity.
Alongside his famous fiction, Sterne published several volumes of sermons, maintaining his dual identity as a clergyman and a popular author. Shortly before his death, he published another highly influential work, A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768), which helped popularize travel literature emphasizing subjective emotional experiences. Sterne died in London in 1768 and was buried in the churchyard of St George's, Hanover Square, leaving behind a legacy of formal innovation that would influence generations of novelists.
