Swiftly Sterneward : Essays on Laurence Sterne and His Times in Honor of Melvyn New

Selected Publications By Melvyn New -- Part I: Perspectives On The Eighteenth Century -- Alexander Pope, T.s. Eliot, And The Fate Of Poetry / Joseph G. Kronick -- A Sentimental Journey Through Thomas Gainsborough's Cottage-door Paintings / E. Derek Taylor -- Johnson And Moral Argument: We Talked Of The Casuistical Question ... / Robert G. Walker -- Slavery In Roderick Random / Taylor Corse -- The Printing And Publication Of Three Folio Editions Of George Lyttelton's To The Memory Of A Lady Lately Deceased (1747-1748) / James E. May -- Parson Adams's Sermons: Benjamin Hoadly And Henry Fielding / Martha F. Bowden -- Joseph Andrews, Realism, And Openness / Eric Rothstein -- Satire And The Psychology Of Religion In Swift And Nietzsche / Frank Palmeri -- Part Ii: Perspectives On Laurence Sterne -- Gershom Scholem's Reading Of Tristram Shandy / Elizabeth Kraft -- Laurence Sterne, The Apostrophe, And American Abolitionism, 1788-1831 / W.b. Gerard -- Attribution Problems In Sterne's Ecclesiastical And Secular Politickings / W.g. Day -- Sterne And The Miracle Of The Fragment / Madeleine Descargues-grant -- The Centrality Of Sterne In The Culture Of Modernity, Or Melvyn New And The Rewriting Of The West / Donald R. Wehrs. Edited By W.b. Gerard, E. Derek Taylor, And Robert G. Walker. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. These thirteen essays have been collected to honor Melvyn New, professor emeritus (Florida), and are prefaced by a description of his scholarly career of more than forty years. Suggesting the wide range of that career, the first eight essays offer various critical perspectives on a diverse group of eighteenth-century authors. These include a reading of Eliot in the shadow of Pope; a comparison of Gainsborough's final paintings and Sterne's Sentimental Journey; a study of Johnson and casuistry; a discussion of Smollett's view of slavery in Roderick Random; a bibliographical study of a Lyttelton poem; a comparison of Swift and Nietzsche; and two essays about Fielding's Joseph Andrews. Laurence Sterne, the primary focus of Professor New's scholarship, is also the focus of the final five essays, which treat Sterne in contexts as disparate as the kabbalah, abolitionist discourse, local English church politics, the use of the fragment, and, finally, the culture of modernity. This collection of thirteen essays is in honor of the distinguished scholarly career of Melvyn New, Professor Emeritus of the University of Florida. The first eight essays offer various critical perspectives on a diverse group of eighteenth-century authors. Subjects include Pope and Eliot, Swift and Nietzsche, Sterne and Gainsborough, Johnson, Smollett, Lyttelton, and Fielding. The final five essays focus specifically on Sterne, the primary subject of Professor New's career of more than four decades. Contributors are both former students and colleagues and come from the United States, England