The History of Mr. Polly is a 1910 comic novel by H. G. Wells.
Alfred Polly is a quiet, timid and direction-less young man living in Victorian England, in the dreary and dull fictional town of Fishbourne (thought to be based on Sandgate, Kent where Wells lived for several years). Polly enjoys reading books of knightly endeavours more than his job in a draper's shop, and eventually his daydreaming loses him his job and he finds himself heading into poverty. After the death of his father, a man he had little in common with, he's left a little money in the inheritance and at the funeral he meets Miriam Larkins, a distant cousin. Although not really in love with her (Polly is in fact in love with Christabel, a girl he met whilst out riding his bicycle), he marries Miriam and, despite his determination never to set foot in a shop again, they buy a shop and set out to make a success of it.
— Excerpted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
