The response to Sterne’s publications was immediate and considerable. Yet it is especially remarkable for the extent to which readers expressed their opinions about Tristram’s Life and Opinions, or about Yorick’s Sentimental Journey, in highly creative forms. From the outset Sterne’s writings have encouraged imitations that either adopt the ‘Shandean’ style of witty, digressive prose strewn with typographical symbols, or which emulate the ‘sentimental’ qualities found in his most touching passages – or sometimes do both. Sterne’s fiction, and to some degree other writings such as his correspondence, has inspired a vast array of adaptations in varied genres and art-forms, from prose pieces, to plays, poems, and songs, as well as in the visual arts. ‘Sterneana’ offers a means of gauging how Sterne’s readers responded to his works, where, and when, but ultimately reveals how far multiple attitudes towards both the author and his work coexisted at any one time. Sterneana offers a stimulating insight into how criticism or commentary can be expressed most effectively by writing ‘in the manner’ of such a celebrated writer.