Shandean Ambles

"Shandean Ambles" is "a hypertext adaptation of the famous eighteenth-century novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gent. (1760-1767), by Laurence Sterne. Larsen sets her narrative in Shandy Hall, Coxwold, England, Sterne's place of residence, where the narrator and protagonist has been invited to 'play' and 'write something' in the span of twenty-four hours. She asks, 'What should I write?' and thereby begins, as the title anticipates through the homophone 'amble,' to ramble. Using a deceptively simple design that resembles early web pages and consists primarily of text, hyperlinks, and photos, Larsen recreates the form and experience of reading Sterne's novel, which is a response to eighteenth-century novelistic concerns about verisimilitude, linearity, authority, and materiality, and was delivered in nine volumes across seven years. The volumes are represented in the hypertext'ss path of nine nodes. In turn, the path recreates the experience of reading Sterne's lengthy narrative of digressions by way of hyperlinks that lead to other nodes." -- From Electronic Literature Directory