A SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY

London: For T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt, 1768. 2 volumes. The Very Scarce First Edition, this set with the list of subscribers and both half-titles. Illustrated with Stern’s engraved coat-of-arms on p. 38 of Vol, II. Small 8vo, in full antique mottled calf with highly expert restoration at the spines which feature blind ruled raised bands, gilt volume numbers and dark red morocco labels gilt framed and lettered. xx, 203; (4), 208 pp. Very fine and very fresh copies of the scarce first edition, a quite solid and attractive set with fresh, clean paper and handsome bindings. RARE FIRST EDITION OF THIS FAMOUS WORK BY LAURENCE STERNE, A SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY... IS ONE OF THE GREAT BOOKS OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ENGLISH LITERATURE AND ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL. This copy with the list of subscribers. Rothschild variant state with "vous" on page 150 of Volume I; and Volume II with pages 34 and 35 misnumbered and with "who have" on page 133 (no priority established).
Sterne travelled through France and Italy as far south as Naples, and after returning determined to describe his travels from a sentimental point of view. The novel can be seen as an epilogue to the possibly unfinished work The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, and also as an answer to Tobias Smollett's decidedly unsentimental Travels through France and Italy. Sterne had met Smollett during his travels in Europe, and strongly objected to his spleen, acerbity and quarrelsomeness. He modeled the character of Smelfungus on him.
The novel was extremely popular and influential and helped establish travel writing as the dominant genre of the second half of the 18th century. Accourding to Drabble; "[Sterne] is generally acknowledged as an innovator of the highest originality, and has been seen as the chief begetter of a long line of writers interested in the stream-of-consciousness .