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"No odder book than John Buncle was published in England throughout the long life of Amory. Romances there were, like Gulliver's Travels and Peter Wilkins,
in which the incidents were much more incredible, but there was no
supposition that these would be treated as real history. The curious
feature of John Buncle is that the story is told with the
strictest attention to realism and detail, and yet is embroidered all
over with the impossible. There can be no doubt that Amory, who belonged
to an older school, was affected by the form of the new novels which
were the fashion in 1756. He wished to be as particular as Mr.
Richardson, as manly as Captain Fielding, as breezy and vigorous as Dr.
Smollett, the three new writers who were all the talk of the town. . . . . . . To lovers of odd books, John Buncle
will always have a genuine attraction. Its learning would have dazzled
Dr. Primrose, and is put on in glittering spars and shells, like the
ornaments of the many grottoes that it describes. It is diversified by
descriptions of natural scenery, which are often exceedingly felicitous
and original, and it is quickened by the human warmth and flush of the
love passages, which, with all their quaintness, are extremely human"
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