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 famous 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 19^th-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 famous 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.