SOURCE: History of the Pre-Romantic Novel in England, Modern Language Association of America, 1949, pp. 94-100.

In the following excerpt, Foster examines Amory's Memoirs and The Life of John Buncle, Esq., emphasizing that both works reflect the author's strong belief in the tenets of eighteenth-century deism.

Thomas Amory (1691 or 1697-1788) was less of the mountebank but much more the eccentric. In fact, impartial observers, and at times even his friends, strongly suspected that he was disordered in his intellect. Amory had some Irish in him. His father, who had come to Ireland with William III, owned property in County Clare and was prosperous enough to give his son a good education. Young Amory was sent to Dr. Sheridan's school in Dublin, spent some time living with a family in France to pick up the language, and studied at Trinity College, Dublin. Some of the most inspiring hours of his...