The Shandeans of the Soviet Union

"I wrote not to be fed but to be famous." This is one of the many, many humorous and whimsical sayings attributed to the writer Laurence Sterne. This Anglican cleric became a sensation in mid-18th century Britain after publishing his irreverent, stream-of-consciousness novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. Shandy was translated throughout Europe, eventually landing in the Russian empire. Sterne’s fandom continues there to this day. I knew nothing about Laurence Stearne. Then, I learned of Peter Burin’s book on the author’s reception in the Soviet Union. What did Soviet readers see in Sterne’s work? How did they relate to it, even for it to serve as a sort of lifestyle guide? And how did a sentimentalist author like Sterne square within an increasingly ideologically orthodox Stalinist society? The Eurasian Knot spoke to Budrin about Sterne in the USSR to learn more.

Guest:

Peter Budrin is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Queen Mary University of London. He’s the author of Laurence Sterne and his Readers in Early Soviet Russia: The Secret Order of Shandeans published by Oxford University Press.

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