Polly Honeycombe

[1] It comically deals with the effect of novel-reading on not only young women, but on various members of polite 18th-century English society.

The title character, Polly Honeycombe, is a young woman who reads many novels from the circulating library.

"[2] Her father plans to marry her to Ledger, "the rich Jew's wife's nephew,"[3] who shares none of Polly's notions of romance.

[4] When Honeycombe discovers his daughter's intentions, he locks her in her room—an action which Polly recognizes as a typical plot point.

Ledger tracks them down and brings them back, only for the family to discover that Polly and Scribble had already begun the process of marrying, according to the 1753 Marriage Act, by pronouncing their bans.