AMORY, THOMAS

born 1691? died Nov. 25, 1788, London, Eng.? British writer of Irish descent, best known for his extravagant autobiography, The Life of John Buncle, 2 vol. (1756 and 1766), in which the hero marries seven wives in succession, each wife embodying one of Amory's ideals of womanhood. Rich, racy, and eccentric, his works contain something of the spirit of both Charles Dickens and Franois Rabelais. A staunch Unitarian and a student of medicine, geology, and antiquities, Amory filled his writings with a variety of information on these and other subjects. He is thought to have lived in Dublin (where he knew the satirist Jonathan Swift) and later at Westminster.