In Samuel Richardson’s 1740–1741 Pamela, Or Virtue Rewarded, a young servant girl fights to repulse the advances of her master, eventually forcing him to legitimize his desire through marriage.

Frances Burney’s Evalina; Or, The History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World (1778) is the story of a witty and plucky young girl who selects her mate from a host of admirers.

Elizabeth Inchbald’s A Simple Story (1791) relates the plight of a young girl who falls in love with her protector, who inconveniently happens to be a priest.

In Charlotte Lennox’s The Female Quixote (1752), a naïve female protagonist—influenced by reading too many romantic novels—persists in being completely honest, no matter what the circumstances, to the bafflement of her friends and would-be lovers.

London Assurance (1841), by Dion Boucicault, is a drawing room farce with aptly metaphorical character names, and it also portrays the plight of a son whose father wants to marry him off to the very girl with whom he has already fallen in love.

Oscar Wilde’s Comedy of Manners The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) is a spectacularly witty take on the theme of the mistaken identity of a lover.