ABSTRACT
But since the body in Tristram Shandy is viewed as a dark covering of uncrystalized flesh rather than as a lucid medium, we get little in the way of vivid physical description of faces, figures, and so forth. Apart from the Hogarthian figure of Dr Slop,4 the characters are seldom visually realized. Sterne and Tristram go another way to work, and decide to do the business of characterization through defining their characters' hobby horses instead (I. xxm: 77).
