SOURCE: “Sighs of a Singleton,” in Washington Post Book World, July 5, 1998, p. 4.

In the following review, Todd offers words of encouragement to Fielding's character Bridget Jones.

Dear Bridget: So you're off to the States. It's about time. You've gone as far as you can in England. What started as a newspaper column—the diary of a single 30-something (“singleton”) Londoner—turned into a phenomenon. You've topped the fiction bestseller lists for almost a year [with Bridget Jones's Diary]. Your name's an adjective, verb and noun, all at once. (“That's very Bridget Jones”; “I pulled a Bridget Jones last night”). You're the most popular girl in Britain—how can you possibly go wrong in America?

It's good your American editors haven't asked you to change for your new readers. You're not—like your skeletony American cousin Ally McBeal—perfectly coiffed. You eat too much, get hangovers, smoke cigarettes by...