Laurence Sterne and the Visual Imagination

The first full-length and comprehensive study of the illustrations of Sterne's work, this book explores the ability of Sterne's texts to arouse the visual imagination. It helps to explain why editions of his fiction have been illustrated, some profusely: to fulfill the reader's desire, as well as the artist's compulsion, to visualize Sterne's words. Gerard places his subject in a clear and innovative theoretical framework which opens the field to general word and image studies.