diff --git a/dataclass_io/reader.py b/dataclass_io/reader.py
index 58d9aee..bfb30b2 100644
--- a/dataclass_io/reader.py
+++ b/dataclass_io/reader.py
@@ -1,32 +1,62 @@
 from csv import DictReader
 from dataclasses import fields
+from dataclasses import is_dataclass
 from pathlib import Path
 from types import TracebackType
 from typing import Any
+from typing import ClassVar
+from typing import Protocol
 from typing import Type
 
 from dataclass_io.lib import assert_readable_dataclass
 from dataclass_io.lib import assert_readable_file
 
 
+class DataclassInstance(Protocol):
+    """
+    Type hint for a non-specific instance of a dataclass.
+
+    `DataclassReader` is an iterator over instances of the specified dataclass type. However, the
+    actual type is not known prior to instantiation. This `Protocol` is used to type hint the return
+    signature of `DataclassReader`'s `__next__` method.
+
+    https://stackoverflow.com/a/55240861
+    """
+    __dataclass_fields__: ClassVar[dict[str, Any]]
+
+
 class DataclassReader:
     def __init__(
         self,
         path: Path,
-        dc_type: type,
+        dataclass_type: type,
         **kwds: Any,
     ) -> None:
         """
         Args:
             path: Path to the file to read.
-            dc_type: Dataclass type.
+            dataclass_type: Dataclass type.
+
+        Raises:
+            FileNotFoundError: If the input file does not exist.
+            IsADirectoryError: If the input file path is a directory.
+            PermissionError: If the input file is not readable.
+            TypeError: If the provided type is not a dataclass.
         """
 
         assert_readable_file(path)
-        assert_readable_dataclass(dc_type)
+        assert_readable_dataclass(dataclass_type)
+
+        # NB: Somewhat annoyingly, when this validation is extracted into an external helper,
+        # mypy can no longer recognize that `self._dataclass_type` is a dataclass, and complains
+        # about the return type on `_row_to_dataclass`.
+        #
+        # I'm leaving `assert_readable_dataclass` in case we want to extend the definition of what
+        # it means to be a valid dataclass, but this is needed here to satisfy type checking.
+        if not is_dataclass(dataclass_type):
+            raise TypeError("The provided type must be a dataclass: {}".format(dataclass_type))
 
-        self._dc_type = dc_type
-        self._dc_fields = fields(self._dc_type)
+        self._dataclass_type = dataclass_type
 
         self._fin = path.open("r")
         self._reader = DictReader(self._fin, **kwds)
@@ -45,7 +75,21 @@ def __exit__(
     def __iter__(self) -> "DataclassReader":
         return self
 
-    def __next__(self) -> dict[str, str]:
+    def __next__(self) -> DataclassInstance:
         row = next(self._reader)
-        return row
 
+        return self._row_to_dataclass(row)
+
+    def _row_to_dataclass(self, row: dict[str, str]) -> DataclassInstance:
+        """
+        Convert a row of a CSV file into a dataclass instance.
+        """
+
+        coerced_values: dict[str, Any] = {}
+
+        # Coerce each value in the row to the type of the corresponding field
+        for field in fields(self._dataclass_type):
+            value = row[field.name]
+            coerced_values[field.name] = field.type(value)
+
+        return self._dataclass_type(**coerced_values)
diff --git a/tests/test_reader.py b/tests/test_reader.py
index 2fa207a..4f4a40c 100644
--- a/tests/test_reader.py
+++ b/tests/test_reader.py
@@ -16,8 +16,8 @@ def test_reader(tmp_path: Path) -> None:
     with open(fpath, "w") as f:
         f.write("abc\t1\n")
 
-    dictreader_kwargs = {"fieldnames": ["foo", "bar"], "delimiter": "\t"}
-    with DataclassReader(path=fpath, dc_type=FakeDataclass, **dictreader_kwargs) as reader:
+    dictreader_kwds = {"fieldnames": ["foo", "bar"], "delimiter": "\t"}
+    with DataclassReader(path=fpath, dataclass_type=FakeDataclass, **dictreader_kwds) as reader:
         rows = [row for row in reader]
 
-    assert rows[0] == {"foo": "abc", "bar": "1"}
+    assert rows[0] == FakeDataclass(foo="abc", bar=1)