J. R. R. Adams quotes at length from William Carleton's account (in his autobiography) of first reading Amoranda, or the reformed coquette, when young, "'the first thing in the shape of a novel that ever came into my hands. It was published as a pamphlet, but how I came by it I don't recollect' [rest of account devoted to retelling plot of story] ... "Carleton actually shed tears when he had finished it, out of sheer disappointment that there was no more."