The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
By Laurence Sterne, with an essay by Melvyn New and with 39 photo-collage illustrations by John Baldessari, signed, 1988. $12,500.00
Publication 26
ADD TO CARTAs chance would have it, the Press issued in the same year two of the most experimental novels in English literature. The preceding item on this checklist owes much to the precedent of Tristram Shandy. Sterne's novel, through its own graphic and typographic devices, illustrates itself. John Baldessari, a Shandean artist of the present, paid homage to the parson of York with parallel wit in a separate volume. The book was included in a retrospective of Baldessari's career organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles that travelled to several other institutions.
Laurence Sterne (1713-1768), was an obscure country parson when he self-published the first two volumes of this novel in 1760. When he died eight years later, he was rich and famous, and his book, unlike any other work of English fiction, had garnered extravagant praise and abundant censure. He acknowledged inspiration in the writings of Rabelais, Cervantes, and Montaigne, but Tristram Shandy was and remains an original, provocative, and hilariously funny book. The text was highly unusual in its typographic presentation, and Arion Press went out of its way to be faithful to the details of the setting, which include asterisks for naughty words, a marbled page, and a black page.
FORMAT
Three volumes, novel, 10-1/4 by 6-3/4 inches, 624 pages; essay, same size, 42 pages; accordion-fold of 41 panels for illustrations, same size. The type for the novel and the essay is Monotype and handset Caslon Old Style, printed by letterpress on specially made Curtis Ruysdael paper. The type for the quotations from the novel in the illustrations is Monotype and handset Univers Bold. The photo-collages and the quotations were printed by offset lithography in black and seven colors on Curtis Brightwater Cover. The novel is bound in green calf for the spine and corners, and marbled paper over boards, with titling stamped in gold on the spine. The essay is bound in green paper over boards, foil stamped. The accordion-fold for the illustrations has green paper covers, foil stamped. Contained in a slipcase. Edition of 400 copies. An extra suite of five large-scale lithographic prints was printed in black and eight colors of inks. The paper is T.H. Saunders Waterford Hot Press paper, ranging in size within 22 by 30 inches. The suite is housed in a portfolio with a green cloth spine and green paper sides with a titling label on the front. Edition of 50 numbered sets, plus 15 hors de commerce, signed by the artist.
POSTAGE: Additional postage may apply; please inquire for details.
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