«A heart at ease, Yorick, flies into no extremes—’tis ever on its centre.» (from A Sentimental Journey) ~ #CurrentlyReading: A Sentimental Journey and Other Writings by #LaurenceSterne. This collection by Oxford World's Classics consists of four writings by Sterne: A Sentimental Journey Through France Italy; Journal to Eliza; A Political Romance; Sermons. I have finished A Sentimental Journey and Journal to Eliza so far. I really enjoyed A Sentimental Journey, Sterne's second most famous and final work, telling the journey of Yorick (the pastor in Tristram Shandy) through France and Italy; however, it ends unfinished, on the narrator's way to Italy, as Sterne died before he could finish it. Journal to Eliza, a non-fictional diary, written in the style of letters under the pseudonyms of Yorick and Bramin and published posthumously, has made Sterne kind of fall out of favour with me. It's a scandalous work as it tells an account of his love of Eliza Draper, a married woman living in India, who Sterne met when she had visited England for two years. She travels back to India and Sterne begins his journal, he writes that he madly loves, yearns for Eliza and becomes sick due to his longing. What's more shocking is Sterne was also married, with a daughter at the time, and, at one part, he wishes his sick wife to die in order to not to deal with her financially. Though he says he loves his daughter, he mostly neglects her in his journal, mentioning only when he gets a letter from her about his wife. Considering Tristram Shandy and A Sentimental Journey, I think Sterne should still be admired as a great, witty, innovative writer. ~ «Love is nothing without sentiment. And sentiment is still less without love» (a part of the translation of the French letter in the chapter "The Letter", from explanatory notes of A Sentimental Journey) ~ #ASentimentalJourney #ASentimentalJourneyThroughFranceAndItaly #JournalToEliza #ElizaDraper #APoliticalRomance #Sermons #Yorick #18thcenturyenglishliterature #book #books #bookstagram #bibliophile #englishnovel #novel #currentread #reading #read #bookish #instabook #literature #bookclub #bookworm #booktube #classics #oxfordworldsclassics https://www.instagram.com/p/BoGfsGWHRBC/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=exk80ne3rkej