Gentle reader

Some writers enjoy addressing their reader in a direct manner now and again. Jane Austen, Edna Ferber, J. M. Barrie come to mind.

There is an old thread that shares quotes addressed specifically to “dear reader”:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/171636#n5577749

Here I will share quotes that might not use those words, but do the same thing.

So it was true. The buildings were burned, and there was no insurance.
I know you will say there never is, in stories where the heroine’s courage is to be tested, even if the narrator has to burn down the whole township to do it satisfactorily. But to this objection I can make only this answer: First, that this house really did burn down; secondly, that there really was no insurance; and thirdly, if this combination of circumstances did not sometimes happen in real life, it would never occur to a storyteller to introduce it as a test for heroes and heroines.

- Polly Oliver’s Problem

Not that I agree with the author entirely. But she must have felt defensive about her plot point.

An article on breaking the third wall:

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/breaking-the-third-wall-definition/