In order to avoid failure with embedded newlines (or your other record-separator of choice), I use this:

    my $old_INPUT_RECORD_SEPARATOR = $/;
    $/ = $self->record_delimiter;
    open (DELIMFILE, '<', $filename) or (Carp::confess("Cannot open fi
+le [$filename]: $!"));
    my $record;
    while (<DELIMFILE>) {
        chomp;
        $record = $_;
        # If a line contains an odd amount of doublequotes ("), then w
+e'll need to continue reading until we find another line that contain
+s an odd amount of doublequotes.
        # This is in order to catch fields that contain recordseparato
+rs (but are encased in ""'s).
        if (grep ($_ eq '"', split ('', $_)) % 2 == 1) {
            # Keep reading data and appending to $record until we find
+ another line with an odd number of doublequotes.
            while (<DELIMFILE>) {
                $record .= $_;
                if (grep ($_ eq '"', split ('', $_)) % 2 == 1) { last;
+ }
            }
        } ## end if (grep ($_ eq '"', split...))
        push (@{$ar_returnvalue}, ReadRecord($self, $record));
    } ## end while (<DELIMFILE>)
    close (DELIMFILE);
    $/ = $old_INPUT_RECORD_SEPARATOR;
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And ReadRecord uses a regex to consume the string field by field:

my $field_value;
my $delimiter = $self->field_delimiter;
while ($inputstring) {
    undef $field_value;
    if ($inputstring =~ /^"/) {
        $field_value = $inputstring;
        if ($inputstring =~ /^"(([^"]|"")+)"(?:[$delimiter]|$)/p) {
            ($field_value, $inputstring) = ($1, ${^POSTMATCH});
            # Unescape escaped quotes
            $field_value =~ s/""/"/g;
        } else {
            Carp::confess("Parsing error with remaining data [$inputst
+ring]");
        }
    } else {
        $field_value = $inputstring;
        if ($inputstring =~ /^([^$delimiter"]*)(?:[$delimiter]|$)/p) {
            ($field_value, $inputstring) = ($1, ${^POSTMATCH});
        }
    } ## end else [ if ($inputstring =~ /^"/)]
}
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This conforms to RFC 4180 :)