A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy

'A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy' is a novel by Laurence Sterne as he was facing death. During this time, Sterne traveled through France and Italy as far south as Naples, and after returning determined to describe his travels from a sentimental point of view. The novel was extremely popular and influential and helped establish travel writing as the dominant genre of the second half of the 18th century. Unlike prior travel accounts which stressed classical learning and objective non-personal points of view, this book emphasized the subjective discussions of personal taste and sentiments, of manners and morals over classical learning.