Kleber, Felicitas
“Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy and Don Quixote”. In: Cervantes in the English Speaking World. (Estudios de literatura 96) Kassel 2005, pp. 65-80.

The article is designed to reveal the influence that Cervantes and his Don Quixote had upon Laurence Sterne (1713-1768) and his Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy. The influence can be seen on various levels: most obvious are the allusions to Cervantes and Don Quixote as well as the influence on style, especially on narrative methods, on characters and character pairings, and on humour. Sterne paraphrases, echoes, and refers to Cervantes time and again. Different text passages of Sterne’s letters illustrate that he has reflected upon a conceptual Cervantean comedy. Sterne’s adaptation of a Cervantean comedy made – among others – Tristram Shandy itself a magnum opus of unique Sternean humour.