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    Lost in Transliteration

    A Font Book of Squiggles in Tristram Shandy

    Laurence Sterne's serpentine squiggle is an eloquent
    testament to the limitation of words.  The twisting line
    represents a stick waving in the air to wordlessly
    communicate the vagaries of married life, relating a thousand
    syllogisms'-worth of meaning.

    It would seem that even a squiggle isn't immune to the
    corruption inherent in transliteration.  Like a curl of
    smoke, Sterne's squiggle changes shape as it traverses
    edition after edition of Tristram Shandy.  We here present a
    sampling of squiggle incarnations.  The whimsical font names
    are based upon the publishers or translators in question.

     Letona Distressed  Lindo Medium (Dutch)    Corinth Heavy
         (Spanish)                                 (German)

       [Letona-Dis]         [Lindo-Medi]         [Corinth-He]
       Download EPS         Download EPS         Download EPS
       J.A. Lopez de     Prager Lindo, Het    Lovis Corinth, Das
      Letona, Vida y        leven en de         Leben und die
       opiniones del     gevoelens van den   Meinungen von Herrn
     Caballero Tristam  heer Tristram Shandy   Tristram Shandy
       Shandy (1985)           (1882)               (1908)


    Peau de Chagrin Heavy (French)    Public Domain Pulp Bold

       [Peau-de-Chagrin-Heavy]         [Forgotten-Books-Bold]
             Download EPS                   Download EPS
       Shandy frontispiece from        Forgotten Books (2008)
      Balzac, La Peau de Chagrin
                (1831)


        Nimmo Obtuse        Penguin Heavy         Basil Acute

        [Nimmo-Obtu]         [Penguin-He]        [Basil-Acut]
        Download EPS         Download EPS        Download EPS
      William P. Nimmo      Penguin (1967)       Basil (1792)
           (1882)


        Nimmo & Bain       Josipovici Touch     Routledge Black
        LightOblique            Light

        [Nimmo-Bain]         [Josipovici]        [Routledge-]
        Download EPS         Download EPS        Download EPS
       Nimmo and Bain    Gabriel Josipovici,   Routledge & Sons
           (1883)            Touch (1996)           (1893)


     Penguin Capsized    Sim Manifesto Thin  Ingold Lines Italic

       [Penguin-Ca]         [Sim-Manife]         [Ingold-Lin]
_ _                         Download EPS         Download EPS     _ _
                        The novel "conducts    "Like any other
                            an extremely         gesture, the
                        interesting dialogue Corporal's flourish
                           with silence,      embodies a certain
                         continually taking  duration.  The line
                          us to the point     to which it gives
                        where language loses rise is, therefore,
                            its power to        intrinsically
                          communicate and        dynamic and
                         other methods must  temporal.  When, pen
                        be employed (by both   in hand, Sterne
                         the author and his     recreated the
                         characters).  When    flourish on the
                        Uncle Toby's servant  page, his gesture
       Download EPS      draws a diagram in    left an enduring
       Penguin (date    the sand to declare   trace that we can
         unknown)           the joys of          still read."
                         bachelorhood . . .  --Tim Ingold, Lines:
                        we recognize that we   A Brief History
                          have reached the          (1899)
                           boundaries of
                         language, as does
                        Uncle Toby himself:
                         'A thousand of my
                        father's most subtle
                        syllogisms could not
                         have said more for
                             celibacy."
                           --Stuart Sim,
                           Manifesto For
                           Silence (2007)



      Temple Classics        Chidley Sans        Wyeth Oblique
           Medium

        [Temple-Cla]         [Chidley-Sa]        [Wyeth-Obli]
        Download EPS         Download EPS        Download EPS
      Temple Classics    J.J. Chidley (1847)   John Wyeth (1804)
       Edition (1899)


               Jenson Society Bold  Common Sky Medium       

                  [Jenson-Soc]        [Common-Sky]          
                  Download EPS        Download EPS          
                 Jenson Society      "The reader who
                     (1904)         wishes to try the
                                     gesture should
                                   begin at the lower
                                          end."
                                     --Anthony David
                                    Nuttall, A Common
                                   Sky: Philosophy and
                                      the Literary
                                   Imagination (1974)


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