Marbled paper is part and parcel of Tristram Shandy. It is referenced in an address to the reader at the end of the immediately preceding Chapter 36 (of Book III): "... you will no more be able to penetrate the moral of the next marbled page (motley emblem of my work!) than the world with all its sagacity has been able to unravel the many opinions, transactions, and truths which still lie mystically hid under the dark veil of the black one."

The first printing (1928) includes a piece of genuine marbled paper tipped in facing p. 202. True marbled paper is made by floating colors on the surface of a tray of water, combing the colors to create a pattern, then gently laying a sheet of paper over the surface to transfer the pattern to the paper. Each sheet of handmade marbled paper is unique.

Klopfer wrote in June 1928 when the book was published that the marbled paper, which was customary in finer editions of Tristram Shandy, was "the height of luxury." It was a luxury the ML abandoned after the first printing. No subsequent printing includes a tipped in piece of marbled paper.

When the Modern Library reset the text of Tristram Shandy in the mid-1940s, p. 235 was printed with a marbled pattern. These plates remained in use until the Modern Library discontinued Tristram Shandy in 1970.

First binding style:     4

First inverse DJ number:     [ none ]