Abstract: The article clarifies the reasons behind the lack of a translation of Tristram Shandy in Italy during the 18th and 19th centuries, focusing on three key figures in the history of the reception of Sterne’s novel worthy of greater critical attention: Francesco Gritti, Carlo Bini and Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi. Of the three, Bini is the only one to take the translation of Stern’s work into consideration and to demonstrate a deep understanding of the double comic register, Cervantesque and Rabelaisian, of the original. In Gritti and Guerrazzi’s critiques, Sterne’s Tristram Shandy turns out to move significantly away from the model of sentimentalism prevailing in Italy, especially after Foscolo’s rewriting of Viaggio sentimentale. Rather, it serves as inspiration for his subversive and desecrating charge in open opposition to the mainstream of the Italian novel.
Keywords: Sterne, Laurence, Italian Reception, Translation, Nation, Francesco Gritti, Carlo Bini, Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi.
