sentimental journey analysis

A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy

By laurence sterne.

• A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy Summary

Yorick, a British clergyman, decides to go to France and begins his journey with a jaunt from Dover to Calais, where he has supper after this short trip. While he is eating, he is approached by a poor monk, who is asking for donations. Yorick decides that he will not give the monk any money. Instead, Yorick starts to criticize the monk by saying that hardship exists all over the world: this reality does not give someone the right to eat the bread earned by others. The monk remains silent and leaves.

Yorick soon feels ashamed of his words and realizes that he had no right to criticize the monk. Yorick decides that he will buy a chaise to make his journey faster, but when he gets outside, he does not see Monsieur Dessein , the master of the hotel. He climbs inside a chaise sitting in the courtyard to start writing his preface. All this time, the monk has remained outside, on the premises of the inn.

In the preface, Yorick describes the different types of travelers: the first two are those who travel for petty reasons -- sickness or mental health. The third type consists of those who travel because they are forced to do so by their parents in order to obtain a better education and those who travel with the endorsement of the clergy. The last category of travelers is made up of the Simple Travelers. These travelers are themselves divided into Idle Travellers, Inquisitive Travellers, Lying Travellers, Proud Travellers, Vain Travellers, Splenetic Travellers, The Travellers of Necessity, The Delinquent and Felonious Traveller, The Unfortunate and Innocent Traveller, The Simple Traveller, and The Sentimental Traveler. Yorick places himself in the last of these subsets.

Monsieur Dessein refuses to give Yorick the chaise, saying that it is not in good shape and that it would not withstand the journey; instead, he offers to take Yorick to his Remise to look at other chaises. Upon arriving at the shop, Monsieur Dessein realizes that he has the wrong key and then proceeds to search out the right one, letting Yorick wait at the door with a young and pretty lady of good breeding. Yorick and his new companion are interrupted by the same monk who approached Yorick earlier. Because he saw the monk talking to the young woman, Yorick fears that the monk has been criticizing him for being cruel. Observing that the monk is holding a horn snuff box, Yorick decides to give the monk his own snuff box in apology for his earlier behavior. They exchange snuff boxes and the monk then takes his leave.

Monsieur Dessein returns and Yorick decides which chaise he wants to buy. The lady and Yorick are shut inside the chaise by Monsieur Dessein, who eventually comes back to tell them that the lady’s brother has arrived at the hotel. The lady leaves and Yorick continues his journey, ruminating on the lady's beauty.

When Yorick arrives in Montreuil, a landlord tells him that it would be advisable to have a servant accompany him during his journey, and that it will be easy to procure one because Englishmen are known for being generous. The landlord brings out La Fleur , a young man of good temperament and nice looks but few skills, and Yorick agrees to take La Fleur along.

The next day, Yorick and La Fleur begin their travels, Yorick in his chaise and La Fleur on a small horse. They are later obliged to share the chaise when La Fleur’s horse is spooked by a dead ass in the road.

When they arrive in Nampont, Yorick and La Fleur meet the man whose his ass has died, who is headed towards Spain. La Fleur wants to offer this man money but is refused, since the man asserts that he considered his ass a friend and mourns the loss of the ass for that reason. The journey continues to Paris. Once he arrives there, Yorick sends for a barber to prepare him for his meeting with Madame de R***, to whom he was supposed to deliver a letter from Madame de L***, the young lady from the Remise.

After getting ready, Yorick takes a stroll through the town and meets a lady who is working in a shop. He asks her for directions towards the Opera Comique and she explains the route to him a few times. The two flirt during this exchange.

Yorick buys a pair of gloves from the lady in the shop before going to the Opera house. At the Opera, Yorick befriends a French officer, who himself intervenes to help a poor dwarf whose view of the show is blocked by a corpulent and rude German. Yorick also encounters a virtuous fille de chambre , whom he had met earlier in a bookstore, and engages in a flirtation with her.

When Yorick returns to the hotel, he is told that a police officer came to check his passport. Because he does not actually have a passport, Yorick begins to panic, fearing imprisonment in the Bastille. He decides to go to Versailles to visit a Count who may be able to help him out of his passport dilemma. After he arrives at Versailles, Yorick visits Count de B***. He explains his plight, and the two converse about a few different matters. When asked his name, Yorick points at the name of the character Yorick in Hamlet . The Count, believing that Yorick is the court jester who appears in the play, gives him a passport immediately. Yorick wants to correct the Count, but is embarrassed and thus unable to do so; he simply heads back to Paris.

After spending some additional time in Paris, Yorick directs his journey towards Italy. He stops to visit Maria , a young woman with an addled mind whom Yorick knows by way of the Shandy family. After encouraging Maria, Yorick continues towards Lyon.

Yorick stops at an inn one night but, since there are no more individual rooms left, he has to share a room with a lady and her fille de chambre . The new acquaintances all agree to share the room under the condition that Yorick remain quiet, a promise which he breaks when he can’t sleep. An argument takes place between the lady and Yorick, and the chambermaid steps between them. The novel ends abruptly with Yorick reaching out and accidentally touching the chambermaid.

A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy Questions and Answers

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Study Guide for A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy

A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy study guide contains a biography of Laurence Sterne, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy
• Character List

Essays for A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy

A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy by Laurence Sterne.

• Controlling Exchange: Money in A Sentimental Journey
• The Unfulfilled Climax: Eroticism, Sentimentalism and Narrative Form in Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey
• Feelings in Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy

E-Text of A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy

A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy E-Text contains the full text of A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy

• Calais - In the Street. Calais
• Montreuil - The Bidet
• Nampont. The Dead Ass - Nampont. The Postilion
• Amiens - The Letter
• Paris - The Captive. Paris

Wikipedia Entries for A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy

• Introduction
• Plot summary

A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy

55 pages • 1 hour read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-9

Chapters 10-18

Chapters 19-23

Chapters 24-32

Chapters 33-41

Chapters 42-46

Chapters 47-56

Chapters 57-65

Chapters 66-70

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Yorick is the narrator of A Sentimental Journey . It is commonly accepted that he is a thinly-veiled alter-ego for the book’s actual author, Lawrence Sterne. As a travel writer, Yorick takes on the role of providing the kind of literature Sterne himself values. It is useful to note that Yorick often defines himself in relation to a rival writer, Tobias Smollett, who appears in the novel via his respective alter-ego, Smelfungus. Yorick is highly disparaging of Smelfungus and the qualities he believes Smelfungus lacks (and which, accordingly, Sterne believes Smollett lacks) are those which come to define the text: sentimentality , geniality, and an ability to truly appreciate another country. Yorick believes himself to possess all of these qualities, which is why he believes his own writing to be of far greater value than the “spleen and jaundice” (21) of Smelfungus.

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As 'Roaring Kitty' Returns, Here Are 3 ETFs To Leverage The 2024 Meme Stock Wave

Zinger key points.

• Keith Gill, aka Roaring Kitty, returns to social media after three years, reigniting the meme stock frenzy.
• GameStop's stock surges 74%, marking its fourth-largest one-day gain ever, while AMC shares increased nearly 80%.

Meme stocks have once again captured the spotlight in the financial market following the return of Keith Gill — known widely as “Roaring Kitty”— to social media after a three-year hiatus.

For those unfamiliar, Gill is a pivotal figure in the meme stock phenomenon that took the financial world by storm in early 2021. As an individual investor and financial analyst, he became famous for his role in the explosive rise of GameStop Inc. GME ’s stock price.

The struggling video game retailer saw its shares soar from under $20 to nearly $500 at their peak in January 2021, largely driven by a short squeeze on investors who had bet against the stock amid weak fundamentals.

Unlike traditional stocks, which are influenced by fundamental analysis and corporate performance, meme stocks are often subject to rapid price changes driven by hype and mass trading actions.

Gill chronicled his investment journey across various platforms, including YouTube and Reddit, notably under the username u/DeepF******Value on the subreddit r/WallStreetBets. His philosophy is emblematic of a broader narrative about meme stocks and the democratization of investing, illustrating how individual investors can unite to disrupt the financial status quo of seasoned and large investors.

Gill’s resurgence on X (formerly known as Twitter) on May 13, sparked a viral reaction. A posted image of a man intensely focused on a video game, adopting a serious gaming stance, served as a metaphor for Gill’s impactful return to the public eye.

The post has attracted considerable attention, amassing over 10K retweets, 24K quote tweets, 94K likes, and over 19 million views, highlighting its widespread appeal and significance.

As a result, GameStop’s share price soared by 74% on Monday, representing the fourth-largest one-day gain since the company’s IPO in 2002. This surge trails only behind the spikes of 104% on Feb. 21, 2021, 135% on Jan. 27, 2021, and 93% on Jan. 26, 2021.

Similarly, other meme-related stocks experienced significant increases. AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc . AMC saw its shares climb nearly 80%, marking its most substantial single-day rise since June 2021, the third strongest in its history.

Meme-Stock Related ETFs Overview

Investors looking to capitalize on the volatility and potential high returns of these stocks can consider meme-stock-related exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Schwab Crypto Thematic ETF STCE

• Description: This ETF invests in key cryptocurrency companies and includes meme-related stocks, blending digital finance with viral market trends.
• Top Holdings: MicroStrategy Incorporated MSTR , Coinbase Global, Inc . COIN , CleanSpark, Inc. CLSK , Marathon Digital Holdings, Inc. MARA
• 1-Day Return (May 13, 2024): 2.99%
• Top Performers: AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc., GameStop Corp., Beyond, Inc. BYON

SoFi Social 50 ETF SFYF

• Description: Tracks the top 50 stocks held in SoFi's self-directed accounts, highlighting popular choices among retail investors, including frequent meme stock picks.
• Top Holdings: NVIDIA Corporation NVDA , Tesla Inc . TSLA , Microsoft Corp MSFT , Meta Platforms, Inc. META
• 1-Day Return (May 13, 2024): 2.1%
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VanEck Vectors Social Sentiment ETF BUZZ

• Description: Utilizes AI to analyze online content and select the 75 large-cap stocks with the most positive investor sentiment each month, reflecting current market trends.
• Top Holdings: Paramount Global PARA PARAA , Alphabet Inc. GOOGL GOOG , Apple Inc. AAPL , The Boeing Company BA
• 1-Day Return (May 13, 2024): 0.9%
• Top Performers: Rivian Automotive , Moderna Inc. MRNA , Lucid Group Inc. LCID

Now Read: Bitcoin Mining Stocks Marathon Digital, Riot Platforms And CleanSpark Are Moving Monday: What’s Going On?

Photo: Shutterstock

© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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• At the inflection of AI and HR: How we’re equipping employees for the AI era

Artificial intelligence is at another inflection point, transforming industries and supercharging efficiency, adding perhaps trillions to the global economy.

Shopping Muse , for example, revolutionizes how we search for and discover products in a retailer’s digital catalog. We’re piloting an AI mentoring tool that delivers customized assistance for resource-strapped small business owners. Consumer Fraud Risk harnesses AI to identify bank payments to scammers before the money has left their potential victims’ accounts.

But AI is not just transforming experiences for our customers: We’re also using it to personalize experiences for our employees.

AI and emerging technologies almost always spark questions, curiosities, concerns — even fear. We recognize the best way to build trust is to bring our employees along with us on our AI journey, ensuring they are made aware of and educated about our commitment to responsible and ethical AI — in addition to the benefits that AI can bring to their day-to-day experiences and overall career path.

Here are five ways we’re using AI to improve the way our employees work, grow and manage their careers.

01 AI as career coach

Everyone’s career is unique and different, and AI can help employees chart and navigate them. We’re using AI in Unlocked , our internal talent marketplace, to match employees to opportunities, including short-term projects, volunteering, open roles, mentors and learning pathways, recommending them based on both skills they have and skills they want to build. Today, 90% of our workforce is on the platform, with 500,000 project hours and counting.

It's great for our company — and great for career development and growth: A third of employees who participated in a project or mentoring have seen a role change or promotion. Shifting our focus to skills has opened new doors and pathways for our employees.    

02 AI as wellbeing guide

We're using technology to understand employee sentiment, support well-being and productivity, and encourage healthy work habits. To understand what employees think and feel about the company and what matters most to them, we need to synthesize a lot of data and extract the most meaningful insights. We use AI sentiment analysis to help us understand key themes and areas of opportunity, and to deliver personalized insights to our employees on how to optimize their working habits.

Are they effectively managing meetings? AI offers the best cadence based on feedback indicators from meetings they have either hosted or attended. How can they collaborate better? AI can help them harness the power of their network through insights on the breadth, depth and frequency of their interactions. Do they struggle with balancing their workload and the needs of their colleagues? We’re using AI to send automatic nudges that help encourage employees to consider scheduling an email to better accommodate the recipient’s time zone.

03 AI as workflow assistant

AI is being built into the flow of work for everyday moments — nudging a manager to approve a team member’s vacation request, for example. Our automated interview-scheduling tool uses AI to coordinate and, when needed, reschedule interviews with hiring managers. As a result, candidates now see their interviews getting scheduled nearly 90% faster — plus they can complete the scheduling process when it is most convenient for them. Enhancing experiences for hiring managers and candidates continues to drive our results. We’re looking at additional ways to drive more personalization — using AI to suggest open roles, for example.   

04 AI as copilot

AI can be a personal digital assistant, improving productivity by reducing repetitive tasks and creating capacity for innovation. We’re using AI to make meetings more productive with real-time summaries and action items directly in the context of the conversation.​ We’re also using it to learn more about our meeting and calendar behaviors — including the volume of our ad hoc and recurring meetings — so that we can make changes for improved experiences. Using AI-propelled nudges, we encourage employees to block focus time purposefully on their calendars, so that meetings aren’t constantly interrupting their flow, and to use technology such as real-time messaging for more agile working.

05 AI as workforce planning partner

AI can be an advisor for intelligent decision-making, helping understand demand and supply for skills in a local market. Using Unlocked, we can see skills across our employee base, learn where we have gaps and develop learning paths or hiring plans to address them. AI can also help make informed decisions across a variety of workforce planning factors such as talent availability, office space utilization, client proximity needs and cost — helping us make location strategy decisions that best serve our business, employees and customers.

AI is an exciting tool, and that’s important to remember — it’s a tool that people use. We view AI as a partner on our journey to improve the employee experience, and we work hard to create opportunities to use it but also to nurture conversations about it.

We host ongoing discussions about the trends, technologies and safeguards we’ve put in place to ensure our employees know our AI strategy and the current use cases for AI that create value for our business. To drive general AI proficiency, we’ve set up self-paced learning opportunities with customized content depending on an employee’s level or expertise in the area.

This training is coupled with our commitment to ethical AI and avoiding bias in AI through education of our data privacy and responsibility principles and AI guidelines. For example, with the proliferation of ChatGPT, we encouraged our employees to test and learn within the guardrails of our data and tech responsibility principles .

Underpinning this journey is our culture, which we call The Mastercard Way. More than a year ago we went through an incredible enterprise-wide evolution of our culture, building on our strengths and doubling down on behaviors critical to our future growth: thinking big and bold, innovating with intent, creating scalable solutions, and learning and pivoting, all through the lens of doing the right thing.

We’re helping our teams build these behaviors so they can be future-ready and well positioned for the changes that will come with AI and other emerging technologies.

Anshul Sheopuri is the executive vice president for people operations and insights at Mastercard.  Lucrecia Borgonovo is the chief talent and organization effectiveness officer.

Driving AI innovation: How to set the rules of the road

The only AI is responsible AI, which is why Mastercard created a robust AI governance framework to guide its efforts, including an AI Council to review potential use cases. In the U.S. , U.K. and Europe , the company is also helping set standards and support initiatives that respect and protect individual rights.

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A Sentimental Journey

Laurence sterne, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.