This set of books is titled "The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" by the Rev. Laurence Sterne, M.A., In Which Is Added The Sentimental Journey. With Illustrations By George Cruickshank. It was published In two volumes in London by James Cochrane in 1832, and they come in a fine binding by Donnelly. The books have five raised bands, six gilt-ruled compartments with gilt lettering and gilt tooling on the spines, "London 1832" on the heel, green crushed levant with double gilt-fillet borders on the covers, gilt fillet borders with pale green endpapers and "Donnelly" at the bottom of the front paste-down. Volume I has "1st issue this edition, untrimmed copy" in pencil on one of the first blank endpapers, three pages of ads for the Novelist's Library a couple of pages before the frontispiece, which shows an engraved portrait of Laurence Sterne by Freeman, then a tissue guard, the title page, and a one-page list of illustrations to the first volume, an eleven-page Memoir of the Author, 372 pages of text, and the top edge is gilt. The second volume has an illustrated frontis by Cruikshank , a list of illustrations, followed by 357 pages of text and two pages of reviews about the books, for a total of 360 pages in the second volume. Tristram Shandy was inspired by Don Quixote and first appeared as nine volumes in 1759, and it's supposed to be a biography of an amorphous character whose life doesn't take shape till later in the story, and it is filled with stream-of-conscious writing well before that became a genre in modern novels. Laurene Sterne (1713 - 1768) was an Anglo-Irish novelist and cleric who wrote novels like this and published sermons and indulged in local politics, and he wrote an ecclesiastical satire which infuriated the church that was burnt. The two books are 8vo, and measure 6 3/4 x 4 1/2 in. wide apiece, with a binding that is tight and bright, and clean pages and text. There are a couple of shadows from offset on one or two of the engravings and a couple of brown spots in the margins, but you can count them on one hand, and the books are still an attractive set about an oddball character that many kids had to read about in high school. The first editions from 1760 go for a pretty penny, and this is a chance to buy the set at a streamlined price, with the Cruikshank illustrations to boot. #52 #5011