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klausnick (klausnick) wrote in linguaphiles,
2013-02-27 16:48:00

I cannot understand this phrase

[The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

The last sentence in Chapter XXV]

—    It did my uncle Toby's business.

Tags: english
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  • 5 comments

philena

February 27 2013, 13:02:26 UTC 2 months ago

Hmm. I had to look that one up on Project Gutenberg to get the rest of its context. The phrase "to do someone's business" is not idiomatic (anymore) in English, although it might have been when the book was written. From the context--namely, how wonderful Mrs. Wadman's eyes were--I'd guess that the sentence means something like, "It was enough to make uncle Toby fall in love with her."

klausnick

February 27 2013, 13:20:10 UTC 2 months ago

Thank you. This makes sense.

bychoice

February 28 2013, 00:57:27 UTC 2 months ago

Tristram Shandy contains quite difficult language, and many of the phrases have multiple meanings. I studied the book a little at university but did not finish it. Good luck!

daev

February 28 2013, 02:44:29 UTC 2 months ago

I came here to say just that. It was a deliberately hard book to read even for the people who lived at the time it was written!

klausnick

February 28 2013, 06:43:11 UTC 2 months ago

I'm at the last but one Chapter at the moment. The book abounds in puns.