The nineteenth century saw dramatic shifts in readership, which gave rise to debates about reading practices and the nature of fiction. Silver fork novels, with their fashionable subject matter and, for some, lack of redeeming moral value, were at the centre of many early nineteenth-century conversations about literacy and literature. The motivations of silver fork readers in picking up these texts were as varied as those of the authors in writing them, yet the reader/writer relationship remained central to silver fork novels, which worked to educate readers about the fashionable world. Through both overt cultural commentary and the experiences of characters within the text, silver fork novels participated in early nineteenth-century debates about readership and class, educating their audiences in the habits of the ton and teaching them how to be good readers of fashionable fiction.

In the above quote from Castles in the Air, Catherine Gore's narrator describes the proliferation of advice literature for women, giving a ‘how to’ list that reflects the didactic nature of such texts. He then declares, ‘Dear countrywomen, in spite of the time and money you waste upon your toilet, believe me, you are the worst dressed angels in Europe!’ and continues to offer several pages of advice on dress and fashion. Gore draws a self-conscious connection between the genre of advice literature and her own novel as her narrator digresses for several pages, providing guidance that could have come directly from the pages of a popular advice manual, such as The Mirror of the Graces; or The English Lady's Costume (1811), which includes chapters on ‘the female form’ and ‘the detail of dress’.