A Sentimental A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, Laurence Sterne, 1768

Essay: A Sentimental A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, Laurence Sterne, 1768

Introduction:

In the eighteenth century, travel novels came into force in literature. Writers go to foreign countries to discover the landscapes, cultures and customs to which they are foreign. This idea comes from what is called the Grand Tour. It is a journey made by young aristocrats in various countries as a continuation of intellectual education and the passage to adulthood. We are going to be interested in the work of Laurence Sterne called A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, published in 1768. In this work we find the main character and the narrator Yorick who goes to France to meet the French. This travelogue allows the reader to wonder if it is possible for the character of Yorick to go beyond his regime of truth in order to see the reality of the French. To answer this question, we will first look at the author and the historical and philosophical context in which the journey is made. Then we will be interested in the systems of representations and we will finally see that Yorick dismantle his regime of truth through the encounter.

1. Author & context

1. Background of author’s life

Laurence Sterne was born on November 24, 1723 in Clonmel, Ireland. He then moved to England to live with his uncle and graduated from Jesus College University of Cambridge. After graduation, Sterne turned to a vocation as a churchman. He became the vicar of the town of Stillington in Yorkshire and published pamphlets and religious texts. Sterne did not support the high church officials and conservative politicians and decided to publish satirical articles about them and became a controversial figure. Sterne publishes thereafter the novel which will make him known, The life and opinions Of Tristram Shandy, gentleman of 1759 to 1767. And it is in this novel that we find Yorick who will later become the narrator and main character of the work studied today; A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy. Throughout his life, Laurence Sterne is affected by tuberculosis. It is following the aggravation of the symptoms that Laurence Sterne decides to travel to France, and to Italy for a warmer climate. On March 18, 1768 Laurence Sterne died only one month after the publication of A Sentimental Journey.

1. Historical and philosophical context

A Sentimental Journey was written in the 1760s. That is, during The Seven Years’ War (1756-1763). This conflict opposed the United Kingdom and France over trade and colonies in North America. This war, also called World War zero, was won by the United Kingdom after the last battle in Montreal and the signing of the Treaty of Paris. 

At the same time, the Enlightenment movement appeared in England. A movement that "refers to the theoretical, to rational knowledge”.^[1] To face it, sentimentalism makes its appearance. For the sentimentalist writers, the feelings and the emotions "play a decisive role in our capacity to formulate and understand the judgments of value, in particular the moral and aesthetic judgments".^[2] 

1. Why a trip to France?

It would be interesting to ask why the character of Yorick decides to go on a trip to France. The answer to this simple question can be found in the first lines of the novel:

They order, said I, this matter better in France.—You have been in France? said my  gentleman, turning quick upon me, with the most civil triumph in the world. ^[3]

The question here is how the French handle "this matter" better in France. Yorick, unable to answer, decides to go to France to find out. Through this unanswered question, the author shows that the English, more precisely Yorick, do not know the French, their opinions, ways of life and in this case, how they managed "this matter". In other words, Yorick's trip is only the result of envy and lack of knowledge of French society. 

1. Systems of representation

2.1. Itinerary of the traveler

[pic 1]

carte vierge: https://d-maps.com/carte.php?num_car=2824&lang=fr

Yorick being an impulsive and spontaneous character, he left in a hurry and without preparing anything. Thus, the itinerary of his journey is done "day by day". He first took a boat from Dover to Calais. He only stayed a few hours in Calais, the time to buy a "chaise". He then left for Montreuil, a town where he met La Fleur, a young man who would serve him throughout his journey. He stayed in Paris for a short time before leaving for Versailles to obtain a passport. After hearing about Maria, a woman in depression, Yorick decides to join her in the small village of Moulins to try to comfort her. He ends up in the city of Lyon, more precisely in an auberge where he shares a room with a lady and her fille de chambre. The story is cut off at the point where Yorick “caught hold of the fille de chambre’s—”.^[4]

2.2. Places of sociability in his travelogue

One of the main characteristics of A Sentimental Journey is its almost total absence of landscape description. Like many, when one reads a travel novel, one expects to read pages and pages of description, whether of monuments or landscapes. But in this work, it is the encounters that are at the heart of the travel novel.

As I had nothing more to stay me in the shop, we both walk’d out at the door together.

—And what have you to do, my dear, said I, with The Wanderings of the Heart, who scarce know yet you have one? nor, till love has first told you it, or some faithless shepherd has made it ache, canst thou ever be sure it is so. ^[5]

At this point in the novel, Yorick leaves a bookstore to follow a "femme de chambre". As usual, he starts a conversation. But unlike the way people normally approach a stranger, Yorick asks her a question that is rather indiscreet. This shows that the protagonist is a very comfortable person, very sociable and that he sympathizes with people regardless of their social class. As a reader we notice that the character of Yorick is always on the quest of meeting new people and feeding from his encounters in a spiritual and sentimental way.

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