This collection of original stories by today’s finest women writers—including Tracy Chevalier, Francine Prose, Elizabeth McCracken, Tessa Hadley, Audrey Niffenegger, and more—takes inspiration from the opening line in Charlotte Brontë’s most beloved novel, Jane Eyre.

A fixture in the literary canon, Charlotte Brontë is revered by readers all over the world. Her novels featuring unforgettable, strong heroines still resonate with millions today. And who could forget one of literature’s best-known lines: “Reader, I married him” from her classic novel Jane Eyre?

Part of a remarkable family that produced three acclaimed female writers at a time in 19th-century Britain when few women wrote, and fewer were published, Brontë has become a great source of inspiration to writers, especially women, ever since. Now in Reader, I Married Him, twenty of today’s most celebrated women authors have spun original stories, using the opening line from Jane Eyre as a springboard for their own flights of imagination.

Reader, I Married Him will feature stories by:

Tracy Chevalier

Tessa Hadley                                          

Sarah Hall                                               

Helen Dunmore                                     

Kirsty Gunn                                            

Joanna Briscoe                                     

Jane Gardam                                           

Emma Donoghue                                  

Susan Hill                                                  

Francine Prose                                     

Elif Shafak                                              

Evie Wyld                                                 

Patricia Park                                         

Salley Vickers                                       

Nadifa Mohamed                                  

Esther Freud                                         

Linda Grant                                            

Lionel Shriver                                      

Audrey Niffenegger                         

Namwali Serpell                                  

Elizabeth McCracken 

Unique, inventive, and poignant, the stories in Reader, I Married Him pay homage to the literary genius of Charlotte Brontë, and demonstrate once again that her extraordinary vision continues to inspire readers and writers.

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