Sterne was born in November 24th 1713 in Clonmel, county of Tipperary. An English second lieutenant son, studied in the University of Cambridge and in 1738 was ordered priest of the Anglican Church. During 21 years it was vicar in Yorkshire; author of eccentric sermons, he read old novels and the satirical French of the XVI century, François Rabelais.
In 1760, he settled down in London, and in spite of suffering tuberculosis he lived a social and dissolute life. His mr. Yorick´s sermons (1760-1769) had a good acceptance, but the first two volumes of his most important work, the comic, intricate and picaresque novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, gentleman (1759-1767) produced a literary shock. More than for the events that it describes, Tristram Shandy highlights to reveal the thoughts and the author's feelings. It was an original and innovative work that broke the incipient conventions of the novel, confusing the expectations of their readers. He contributed original ideas about the perception, the meaning and the time that made Tristram Shandy precursor of the modern novel and of the interior monologue. He published seven more volumes between 1761 and 1767. He also published Letters to Eliza (1767), written to Eliza Draper, the most important love in his life besides his own wife. For reasons of health, from 1762 to 1764, he lived in Toulouse (France) with his wife, sick mental, and his daughter. In 1765 he carried out a long trip for France and Italy that it inspired him Sentimental Trip (1768), where it picks up their opinions on the social customs that he knew in France. He died in London, in March 18th, 1768 when only two volumes of this work had appeared. Posthumously in 1775, his correspondence was published.
"Sterne, Laurence", Encyclopedia Microsoft(R)
Encarta(R) 98. (c) 1993-1997. Translated by Jorge and Sergio Morales Gómez.