The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume XI. The Period of the French Revolution.
§ 3. William Beckford
With the final remark that this development of the eccentric novel, towards the close of the first great harvest of the novel itself, is, as a historical fact, worthy of no little attention, we may pass to another single figure, and single book, also, in a way, eccentric, but towering far above Amory in genius, and standing alone; later than the great novelists of 1740–70; earlier than the abundant novel-produce of the revolutionary period; exactly contemporary with no one of much mark in the novel except Miss Burney, and as different from her as the most ingenious imagination could devise—to Beckford and Vathek.