1

Taking the diagrams Sterne inserted in chapter XL, the organization of the novel may be full of disgressions and comments that could make difficult the reading of the novel. As a matter of fact, what makes the novel unconventional is the way it is arranged into.

2

I think Sterne is aware of the difference between his novel and previous works because he kows that his work is not a traditional work; moreover, in my opinion, the novelist parodies a little the previous novels that follow a linear development.

3

Tristram Shandy knows the exact date when he was conceived because he draws his conclusion from different elements.

- His father "had made it a rule for many years of his life on the first Sunday night of every month through- out the whole year,as certain as ever the Sunday night came, to wind up a large house-clock which we had standing upon the back-stairs head, with his own hands".

- The frequency of his "family concernments" is the same with which he wound the clock, the first Sunday night of every month

4

When he wound the clock he also brought some other little "family concerns".

5

Tristram can conclude that his conception could not have happened before or after March because his father left home for a journey on the 25th of March and he did not come back home until the second week of May. Before March he was afflicted with a Sciatica.

6

The adjectives that best describe Tristram's father's personality are methodical and systematic.

The adjective that best sums up all the others is methodical.

7

In my opinion Tristram's family belongs to the middle class, considering that Tristram's father was merchant also if he had retired for some years.

9

The ironic comment about the previous traditional works clearly appears in the first part of the chapter, when the first person narrator says that his life and opinions "are likely to make some noise in the world" and he speaks of the success of his book.

10

Tristram does not seem to share any personal trait with his father, he is more chaotic than him

11

Sterne provides to the reader the example of his mother, who associates the winding of the clock to other "family concerns", to support Locke's theory that different ideas are associated in people's mind.

12

I think Tristram's father may be more a caricature than a real flesh-and-blood character.I think the novelist uses the characterization of Tristram's father, who is so methodical and sistematic, to refer to traditional novel.

13

In all the extract the narrator is a first intrusive narrator who comments events and gives judgment; this aspect clearly comes to surface in the last to lines of the extract.

In the lines there is a small dialogue between a man, the narrator, and a woman, a reader, that the narrator calls "Madame".

The narrator answers to a possible question of the reader using the form of dialogue between he and the reader.