Tristram Shandy itself was at the forefront of technological innovations, both as copyright protection and as bravura performance. What John Mullan has called the “stuff” of Tristram Shandy are among the most accessible ways into the text.
Of these techniques, marbling is one of the easier (and more pleasurable) techniques to introduce into the classroom. It is also a tremendously useful way of making tangible Peter J. De Voogd’s own words about the marbled page: “Each marbling is unique, as is each reading of Tristram Shandy. It is fitting that your copy of Tristram Shandy is different from mine, since your subjective experience of the book is different.”

In this piece, which will appear this fall in Studies of the Novel’s Teaching Tools online series, I give precise information about how I set up marbling “labs” in courses, as well as preparatory readings, and context.