Sterne's Fiction and the Double Principle

Laurence Sterne's quotations, plagiarisms and allusions were often employed in the service of the pleonasm, or 'performed pun'. Jonathan Lamb describes Sterne's operation of the pleonasm as his 'double principle'. He asks why the collection and arrangement of fragments had such an appeal for Sterne, and why his most original effects are derived from imitations and repetitions.