1. “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman” is notorious for its many digressions across nine volumes and its failure to deliver a complete “autobiography”. In which volume does Tristram Shandy finally recount his birth?

   1. Volume III

   2. Volume V

   3. Volume VIII

   4. Volume IX

2. How did Sterne send up Robert Burton, author of the 17th-century classic The Anatomy of Melancholy?

   1. Tristram delivers his own mock funeral oration

   2. Sterne borrowed liberally from Burton and rearranged his words into the text

   3. Tristram, on his travels in France, has composed his own treatise on why happiness is elusive and rooted in events before birth

   4. Tristram composes a treatise setting out why reading long scholarly books brings on acute melancholy

3. "’Pray, my Dear,’ quoth my mother, ‘have you not forgot to wind up the clock?’ ‘Good G—!’ cried my father, making an exclamation, but taking care to moderate his voice at the same time — ‘Did ever woman, since the creation of the world, interrupt a man with such a silly question?’” <br /> Which critical moment had Tristram’s mother interrupted?

   1. Her husband's wedding vows

   2. The moment of Tristram's conception

   3. Tristram's conception

   4. Tristram’s father on his death bed, about to utter his last words

4. At one point in the novel, Tristram turns his thoughts towards to the “pagan establishment”. Tristram is particularly engrossed by the facial hair of the many ancient gods –  “every beard of which claimed the rights and privileges of being stroken [sic] and sworn by.” How many sacred pagan beards did Tristram claim there were?

   1. 12

   2. 5,236

   3. 30,000

   4. "As many as there are hairs on my dog, Hairy"

5. Samuel Johnson once stated "Nothing odd will do long. Tristram Shandy did not last." Which German philosopher later rebutted Johnson’s attack by claiming "The man Sterne is worth 1,000 Pedants and commonplace-fellows like Dr J”?

   1. Schopenhauer

   2. Hegel

   3. Nietzsche

   4. De Botton

6. Tristram is considered an unlucky name by Tristram’s father Walter, being derived from the Latin for woe – “tristis” – and thereby condemning his son to a life of disappointment. How did he end up with such a miserable name in the first place?

   1. The local curate was spiteful towards Walter and altered the name

   2. After seeing Tristram’s nose crushed with forceps at birth by the incompetent Doctor Slop

   3. The family maid bungled the pronunciation of the intended name “Trismegistus” to the local curate

   4. At the suggestion of an otherwise shadowy character called Laurence?

7. Sterne sought to portray the limits of the written word with an original device employed throughout the book. How did he challenge his readers?

   1. Blank pages

   2. Passages of nonsense words said to anticipate Dada

   3. Some sentences are written in reverse

   4. A sequence of chapters which end, "And what, dear reader, do you reckon?"

8. In Volume Three of each first edition Sterne inserted a page with no direct bearing to the novel. What was displayed on this page?

   1. Caricatures of contemporary Tories and Whigs

   2. A marble pattern

   3. Advertisements for gentlemen's outfitters

   4. The single word, "Whatever"

9. Which Reformation-era Humanist did Sterne greatly admire and whose influence) can be discerned throughout Tristram Shandy?

   1. Rabelais

   2. Erasmus

   3. Montaigne

   4. Sir Bob Geldoffe

10. ?

    1. Yes

    2. Partly

    3. Don't know

    4. Certainly not!

Solutions

1:A, 2:B, 3:B, 4:C, 5:A, 6:C, 7:A, 8:B, 9:A, 10:C

Scores

1. 3 and above.

   Much less than a half of Shandy. Very poor.

2. 7 and above.

   Well, you had a go. Many literary critics like to say Tristram Shandy is "undecideable". You clearly haven't decided

3. 10 and above.

   Very good indeed. You've clearly followed Sterne's view that "In solitude the mind gains strength" and should go out more