§3. William Beckford. XIII. The Growth of the Later Novel. Vol. 11. The Period of the French Revolution. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes. 1907

The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume XI. The Period of the French Revolution.

XIII. The Growth of the Later Novel.

§ 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.