LAURENCE STERNE
IN GERMANY

NOTE

Mr. Thayer has undertaken to write, in detail and from the sources,the history of Sterne’s vogue in Germany. As thus broadly defined thetask had not before been attempted, although phases of it had beentreated, more or less thoroughly, in recent monographs. The work heresubmitted, the result of careful research in a number of American andEuropean libraries, is in my judgment an interesting and valuablecontribution to our knowledge of the literary relations of England andGermany at the time of the great renascence of German letters.

Calvin Thomas.

Columbia University, May, 1905.

PREFACE

The following study was begun in the autumn of 1901, and waspractically finished now more than a year ago. Since its completion twoworks of interest to lovers of Sterne have been issued, Czerny’s studyof Sterne’s influence upon Hippel and Jean Paul, a work which thepresent author had planned as a continuation of this book, and Prof.Cross’s new definitive edition of Sterne.

I desire here to express my thanks to Prof. W. H. Carpenter,Prof. Calvin Thomas and Prof. W. P. Trent, under whose guidance mylast year of University residence was spent: their interest in my workwas generous and unfailing; their admirable scholarship has been andwill continue to be an inspiration. I am indebted to Prof.Carpenter and Prof. Thomas for many helpful suggestions regarding thepresent work, and the latter especially has given freely of his valuabletime to a consideration of my problems. I am grateful also toseveral other friends for helpful and kindly service, and to manylibrarians in this country and in Europe for their courtesy.

New York, May 1, 1905.

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