"A Political Romance" by Laurence Sterne is a satirical pamphlet published in 1759. This allegorical work transforms a bitter church career dispute into a comic village squabble over used clothing. Written to support his patron in an embarrassing ecclesiastical rivalry, Sterne's sharp satire was so effective that the Archbishop of York demanded all copies be burned. Though suppressed immediately after publication, this first venture into fiction proved a turning point: at age 46, Sterne discovered his gift for humorous writing and soon began his celebrated novel "Tristram Shandy." (This is an automatically generated summary.)