ABSTRACT

In the eighteenth century the story of Maria Graham gained immediate popularity and, as Melvyn New observes, 'was the single subject of Laurence Sterne's fiction most often illustrated by artists in the next century'. In the Epistolario, Ugo Foscolo measures his prose against Sterne's lashing yet subtle and humane irony and, although he never quite articulates it either in his letters or in his creative work, he fully interprets and renders it in his translation of A Sentimental Journey. After the Viaggio sentimentale's completion, the Epistolario shows how Foscolo still indulges for a while in a personal interplay of references, suggestions, and exchanges with Sterne's text. During the Hottingen retreat, Sterne is Foscolo's veritable companion and the Viaggio sentimentale becomes a kind of breviary in which he reflects his own experiences. After declining Giovanni Capodistria's offer, his projects for the immediate future include instead a brief visit to England, a trip to the Greek islands, and the return to Florence.