Petty Differences
Hobby Horses, Pacing Saddles, Cane Chairs, and the Transmission and Transformation of Knowledge in Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus and Tristram Shandy
Abstract
This article considers the relations between literature and science in the Enlightenment by comparing how two intertextual and interdisciplinary texts adapt their sources. The Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus and Tristram Shandy are both loose adaptations of Don Quixote and treat the pursuit of knowledge as Quixotic quests. A striking feature of the adaptive practice of both Sterne and the Scriblerians is that sometimes the source text is barely changed at all. The difference might be petty. These authors test the definition of adaptation and raise questions about what happens to both the source and the new text when a fragment is adapted.
Submitted: Feb. 14, 2026 | Accepted: Feb. 15, 2026 | Published May 11, 2026 | Language: en
Keywords Borges • The Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus • Cervantes • Tristram Shandy • Literature and science • Rabelais • William Petty
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