Novels and Romances, very few of them are worth the trouble reading;— some of them perhaps do contain a few good morals, but they are not worth the finding where so much rubbish is intermix'd — Their moral parts are indeed like small diamonds amongst mountains of dirt and trash, which, after you have found them, are too inconsiderable to answer the pains of coming at; yet, ridiculous as these fictitious tales generally are, they are so artfully managed as to excite an idle curiosity to see the conclusion, through a tiresome length of foolish adventures, from which either knowledge, pleasure, or profit, seldom can accrue, to the common catastrophe of a wedding. — The most I have met with of these writings, to say no worse, it is a little better than the loss of time to peruse — but some of them have more pernicious consequences; — by drawing characters that never exist in life, by representing persons and things in a false and extravagant light, and by a series of improbable causes bringing on impossible events, they are apt to give a romantic turn of the mind, which is often productive of great errors in judgment, and of fatal mistakes in conduct — of this I have seen frequent instances, and therefore advise you scarce ever to meddle with any of them.

Lady Sarah Pennington, an unfortunate mother's advice to her absent daughters, 1761.