ADAPTING TRISTRAM SHANDY by Adria Young Submitted in ...

y the mid-century, to pay homage to the history of visual narrative, and to allude to
Sterne’s audience; the novel as a form of literature was increasingly consumed by
middle-class readers, especially by the 1760s (Bowen 4). 67 And, the portraits continue. In
the final volume of the graphic novel, Rowson and Pete walk through a Piraensian-
inspired Inferno (the Italian scrolled throughout stays true to Piranesi and Dante), until
they come across Sterne (whose image is based on the marble busts by Joseph
Nollekens), a recognizable Jonathan Swift, and François Rabelais playing strip poker.
Figure 10: Swift, Rabelais, and Sterne (with Pete and Rowson).
Sterne just lost the hand, and he pulls off his sock (his last item of clothing) with a
grimace (Figure 10). Rabelais, it must be noted, is fully clothed. In what is considered the
genealogy of bawdy satire, Rabelais to Swift to Sterne, neither Sterne nor Swift have
cards to play against their greatest influence. The cards with which they play feature the
characters of Tristram Shandy, a subtle joke on the popularity of novels and their
marketable trinkets.The cards also signify the graphic novel's current place in the
volume. 68 Rowson appeals to the contexts and intertexts through iconic resemblance;
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