Analysis of the book often seeks to answer whether its depictions of extreme emotion are meant to be serious, or whether Yorick is an unreliable narrator intended to mock the eighteenth-century culture of sensibility.

After some time in Calais, the next town he visits is Montreuil, where he hires a servant to accompany him on his journey, a young man named La Fleur.

Along the way, they pass a man mourning for his dead ass; Yorick sympathizes with him, but his sympathy is interrupted by his carriage driving away too quickly.

He sees a starling in a cage, which seems to be repeating the phrase "I can't get out"; he is unable to free it and, dwelling on its captivity, becomes miserable imagining the suffering of a prisoner in the Bastille.

A Sentimental Journey was partly written in response to the declining public opinion of Sterne's previous novel, Tristram Shandy, which he had been publishing in instalments since 1762.

[1] As the 1760s went on, the general literary taste also grew more disapproving of lewd content, contributing to the declining appreciation for (and sales of) Tristram Shandy's ongoing instalments.

[2] In 1765, Ralph Griffiths reviewed the latest volumes of Tristram Shandy by saying that the public was no longer interested in that novel, directly advising Sterne to begin a new one focused on sentimentality.

[6] Still inspired, he decided to write a new book which would experiment with the genre of the travel narrative, and revive his literary reputation after the declining sales of Tristram Shandy.

[6] Sterne first mentioned his plans for a new project in the summer of 1766, when he wrote that he would start a new travel-oriented four-volume work after he had finished the ninth volume of Tristram Shandy.

[15] Later editions include illustrations by Thomas Heath Robinson (1869–1954), Vera Willoughby (1870–1939), Gwen Raverat (1885–1957), and Brian Robb (1913–1979).

"[23] In Tristram Shandy, Parson Yorick is a minor character with a melodramatically tragic story: he is rejected by the church for his sense of humour, and dies in poverty.

[2] Publishing A Sentimental Journey under Yorick's name primed readers to expect the character's lighthearted but fundamentally moral perspective.

In this moment, he "felt such undescribable emotions within" that he writes, "I am positive I have a soul," rejecting the materialist view that sees all human behaviour as "combinations of matter and motion.

[10] Sterne often presented the novel as one with a serious moral purpose, calling it his "Work of Redemption", and writing to a friend that the book would "teach us to love the world and our fellow creatures better than we do.

[26] Eighteenth-century sceptics of the sentimental movement particularly criticized the shallowness of moments where Yorick expresses emotion but takes no action.

[28] Several twentieth-century scholars have argued that Yorick's feelings and religious expressions are intentionally excessive, and that he ought to be read as an unreliable narrator.

"[7] Thomas Keymer argues in The Cambridge Companion to Laurence Sterne that the novel is best understood as offering the reader both options, serious or satirical, depending on their tastes.

[6][9] One indication that Sterne's attitude to France was more generous than that of his audience lies in the annotations of an unknown eighteenth-century reader.

This reader added comments in the margins of their copy of the first edition, expressing their conviction that France was naturally plagued with poverty due to its absolutist and Catholic government.

[9] The Monthly Review referred to it as his "best production", and said, "the highest excellence of this genuine, this legitimate son of humour, lies not in his humorous but in his pathetic vein.

"[22]Reflecting this general taste, the author Horace Walpole described it as "infinitely preferable to his tiresome Tristram Shandy" due to its "great good nature and delicacy," which appeals better to the "heart of sensibility.

"[13] More negative was The Critical Review, which complains that the book is "calculated to instruct young travellers in what the author meant for the bon ton of pleasure and licentiousness.

[33] Its positive reputation was particularly promoted by the volume of extracts, The Beauties of Sterne, which was compiled by the print seller and publisher William Holland in 1782.

[32] This unknown reader wrote their assessment at the bottom of the first page of the novel: "Stern was certainly a most elastic genious, by his sudden trancisions from one extreme to the other, not allways to his advantage, from starts or sally's most sublime and elevated down to the most gross and beastly unpardonably as if he feard to be to highly admired.

[9][13] A Sentimental Journey inspired a large number of illustrations, in the form of paintings, prints for sale, and decorated merchandise.

[9][34] In a portrait painted by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun in 1789, the Duchess of Orléans, Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon, is depicted wearing a "Poor Maria" Wedgwood brooch at her waist.

"[9] In 1793, a continuation titled A Sentimental Journey; Intended as a Sequel to Mr Sterne's, attributed to "Mr. Shandy," described Yorick's successful completion of the second half of his itinerary in Italy.

[18] Other responses to A Sentimental Journey presented the perspectives of various side characters, such as the novel The Letters of Maria; to which is Added, an Account of her Death (1790).

[41] This novel was published anonymously and initial reviewers assumed it was written by a man, but an 1814 catalogue from the Minerva Press identifies its author as "Miss Street".

"[41] Another novel using a character from A Sentimental Journey is Jane Timbury's The Story of Le Fevre, From the Works of Laurence Sterne, which follows Yorick's servant.