AMORY, THOMAS (c. 1691-1788), British author, pub lished Memoirs; containing the lives of several Ladies of Great Britain; a History of Antiquities, etc. (1755) and Life of John Buncle Esq. (1756 and 1766). Both books are an extraordinary mixture of fiction, autobiography, scenic description and theo logical discussion. Of the two John Buncle is by far the more readable. "The hero," says George Saintsbury, "becomes less nebulous; in fact he is, at least, of the world of Dickens, when he sits down, in the highest state of contentment, and, in fact, of positive carol, to a pound of steak, a quart of peas, another (or several others) of strong ale and divers cuts of fine bread." "The soul of Rabelais," says Hazlitt, "passed into John (sic) Amory." See an edition of the Life of John Buncle by E. A. Baker (1904) ; also W. Hazlitt, "On John Buncle," in vol. I. of the 1902 ed. of Hazlitt's Works; and G. Saintsbury, "Growth of the Modern Novel," in the Cambridge History of English Literature, vol. xi.