“Against the spleen”: Tristram Shandy, Jest-books and Treatment for Melancholy

When Tristram claims of his work “’tis wrote, an’ please your worships, against the spleen,” one can sense Sterne’s scepticism looming behind his words. This wry scepticism, however, does not undermine Tristram’s claim. Rather, it is actually integral to its fulfilment. By reading Tristram Shandy in the context of sources including contemporary medical texts, Sterne’s sermons, Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy, and eighteenth-century jest-books, one can see that Sterne invites the reader to engage in a sceptical form of laughter which is to serve as their philosophical consolation against melancholy.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-ND

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