”My heart was with Malin”: Mediation and Transformation in Fredrika Bremer’s The Neighbours. This article focuses on a scene in Fredrika Bremer’s 1837 novel, Grannarne (Th e Neighbours), investigating the relationship between reading aloud and empathy established in this work. It discusses the characters’ varied responses to the shared reading experience, utilising reception theory. In a follow-up discussion, I examine the feasibility of using newer theories concerning narrative empathy. Fritz Breithaupt’s theory is of particular interest since he suggests that second-level observation (and thus placing oneself in another person’s perspective) is central to the experience of empathy. Finally, I consider the emotional responses of the characters in relation to melodrama in Bremer’s work.