This study addresses the intricate links between oral culture and literate culture in the eighteenth century. Tadié traces how perceptions and representations of language move from a dominance of the spoken word to a dominance of the written word; and this is echoed in the order of the five chapters on conversation, gesture, theatre, fiction, and print. Tadié offers a reading of Sterne's works, arguing that the use of language lies at the centre of Sterne's art; he approaches this historical dimension of the texts in the context of eighteenth-century theories of language. He brings into focus the heterogeneity of Sterne's texts; and he demonstrates how Sterne's awareness for the variations of language links up with his interest in the form of the book, and with the use of all the potentialities of print.

Alexis Tadié was previously Professor of British Literature at the University of Paris 7- Denis Diderot, France, and is now Professor of English Literature, University of Paris Sorbonne, France.

Contents: General editor's preface; Introduction; The rule of conversation; The flesh of words; The sight of language; The words of fiction; The paradoxes of the book; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.