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Reader, I Married Him: Stories Inspired by Jane Eyre
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Reader, I Married Him: Stories Inspired by Jane Eyre
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Reader, I Married Him: Stories Inspired by Jane Eyre
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Reader, I Married Him: Stories Inspired by Jane Eyre

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

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About this ebook

This collection of original stories by today’s finest women writers 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 books featuring unforgettable, strong heroines still resonate with millions today. And who could forget one of literatures’ 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 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.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperCollins
Release dateMar 22, 2016
ISBN9780062447104
Author

Tracy Chevalier

Tracy Chevalier is the author of the New York Times bestsellers At the Edge of the Orchard and Girl with a Pearl Earring, among others. She lives in London.  

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Rating: 3.4230769292307692 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    As my faithful listeners know, I have a long-standing and abiding admiration for the Brontë sisters, Ann, Emily, and Charlotte. When a new book came out by Tracy Chevalier with the title, Reader, I Married Him, I could not get to a bookstore fast enough. The title of the book stems from that immortal line near the end of Jane Eyre. Tracy has written a number of wonderfully inventive novels including, The Girl with the Pearl Earring, and At the Edge of the Orchard. She has also managed to corral 21 of the best women writers today. Among them is Emma Donoghue, Francine Prose, Elif Shafak. Each writer based their stories the line “Reader, I married him,” and then took that wonderful morsel to stories of amazing creativity, empathy, and power.Picking favorites for this review is almost impossible. While the stories vary on the treatment, they all possess wonderful imaginations. A case in point is “Grace Poole Her Testimony” by Helen Dunmore. She writes, “Reader, I married him. Those are her words for sure. She would have him at the time and place she chose, with every dish on the table to her appetite. // She came in meek and mild, but I knew her at first glance. There she sat in her low chair at a decent distance from the fire, buttering up Mrs. Fairfax as if the old lady were a plate of parsnips. She didn’t see me, but I saw her. You don’t live the life I lived without learning to move so quiet that there is never a stir to frighten anyone. // Jane Eyre. You couldn’t touch her. Nothing could bring a flush of color to that pale cheek. What kind of a pallor was it, you ask? A snowdrop pushing its way out of the bare earth, as green as it was white: that would be a comparison she liked. But I would say: sheets. Blank sheets. Paper, or else a bed that no one had ever lain in or ever wood” (31). Grace Poole was a servant of Rochester who was charged with taking care of Bertha, the iconic “mad women in the attic.”Joanna Briscoe writes in “To Hold,” Mary and I stole conversations between lessons, between days and nights, every moment with her treasured, even the times when we clashed and tangled and cried, then tried so hard to start afresh. But how could you love a woman as I loved her? She lined my existence because she lived inside me, and at night as Robert slept, there were the colors of her, the fragrance, the smooth shell of skin behind her ear. When we could escape town, no one else on the moors on wet days, she walked with me in all the winds, which had names, and by the stream sources, among the curlews, the peregrine nests. She showed me the sandstone and the thorns and waterfalls: all the pretty places where the toadstools grew in dark secret; the drowning ponds, sphagnum, fairy tale growth in tree shadows” (61). This story has an ethereal bent that bring to mind the moors the Brontë sisters loved so dearly.If I had the time and space, I would throw about pages to give a sample of each story. Tracy Chevalier in Reader, I married Him has assembled a marvelous collection of stories that reflect on the wealth of the literature of the 19th century. It is a collection every avid reader and admirer of the Brontë’s should have a permanent copy close at hand. 5 Stars for each of these women.--Chiron, 11/4/18
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Perhaps it's a reflection of this summer of anger and fear, perhaps it's a yearning to return to a beloved book, but there are occasions when riffs on a known story provide a rewarding reading experience.That has been the case with Reader, I Married Him. It's a collection of stories edited by Tracy Chevalier, all based on that famous line from Jane Eyre. Written by a wealth of modern female authors, the stories are far more varied than one might first suspect. Part of this may well be because the idea is not to ruminate on Jane, but instead to take that pronouncement of hers, that she married Mr. Rochester and that she directly addressed her reader, and run with it.The variety is implicit in Chevalier's forward:"Reader, I married him" is Jane's defiant conclusion to her rollercoaster story. It is not, "Reader, he married me" -- as you would expect in a Victorian society where women were supposed to be passive; or even, "Reader, we married." Instead Jane asserts herself; she is the driving force of her narrative, and it is she who chooses to be with Rochester.The choice of a variety of narrators with a corresponding variety of results shows the beauty of Chevalier's choice in determining the focus of the anthology, as well as the beauty and strength of the source material. There is not a single story here that takes away from the power of Jane Eyre's narrative, even the iconclastic stories. They have a power of their own without taking away from the original, something that is at odds with The Wide Sargasso Sea, the Jean Rhys novel about Rochester's first doomed wife.Among the women writing about this declaration of the determination to choose one's mate are Tessa Hadley, Jane Gardam, Emma Donoghue, Francine Prose, Elif Shafak, Evie Wyld, Salley Vickers, Lionel Shriver, Audrey Niffenegger, Elizabeth McCracken, Nadifa Mohamed and Namwali Serpell.The mates chosen by their narrators and protagonists range from a mother's lover to a surly neighbor, from a succession of suitors to a favorite companion. Some clearly have happy endings while others lead to heartache, resignation or even a possible victim of gaslighting.One reason Jane Eyre endures is the strength of the heroine. She is plain, poor and mistreated by her relatives and the school where she was sent. Her only friend is murdered by the cruelty of their so-called protectors. Yet she perseveres and breaks free, choosing not to stay in familiar straits but to get a job on her own with unknown people.Once at Thornfield, she makes her own way, endearing herself to the people who matter most, in a most unconventional household. When she again has the choice to stay in a familiar setting with less than what anyone deserves, she again leaves. And when she receives St. John's attention, she hears the voice of the one she has chosen and returns to Mr. Rochester.Although these stories do not all follow this path, they do demonstrate the ups and downs of a main character who does not want to settle for second best, whether that's what happens or not, and whether they live happily ever after or not.Charlotte Bronte's life failed to follow the path established by her heroine, but she had some things in common with Jane. She fell in love with a married man, Constantin Heger, husband of the headmistress of the school where she worked in Brussels. Charlotte, too, was plain but inside was not a mouse.As Claire Harman notes in the prologue of her biography, Charlotte Bronte, A Fiery Heart:...Charlotte was also struggling with the larger issue of how she would ever accommodate her strong feelings -- whether of love for Heger, or her intellectual passions, or her anger at circumstances and feelings of thwarted destiny -- in the life that life seemed to have in store for her, one of patchy, unsatisfying employment, loneliness and hard work. What was someone like her, a plain, poor, clever, half-educated, dependent spinster daughter, to do with her own spiritual vitality and unfettered imagination? How could she live with the painful "consciousness of faculties unexercised" that had moved her to go abroad in the first place, and that she recognised, from the example of her equally brilliant siblings, not as some sort of freakishness, but as an intimation of the sublime?Although opportunities for women have, to some extent, changed since her days, some things do not change. It is that recognition that has fired the imaginations of the authors in Reader, I Married Him.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It has been quite a while since I have read Jane Éyre, maybe too long, because some of these stories I just could not see the connection. In some it was easy because they directly used something from Jane Éyre, a name in most cases. Some of the writing was good, atmospheric but some were just okay, not much of anything. Didn't really have a favorite, though I did like the story with the pit-bull called Mr. Rochester, obvious connection and all. The best part of this was all the well known authors contributing, many of my favorites, and seeing what they came up with. Definitely not one of my favorite short story collection in a year when I have already read so many great ones.ARC from publisher.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    "Reader, I married him" is probably one of the most famous lines in all of English language literature. I know that my 10 year old heart thrilled to it when I first read it. And each time I read Jane Eyre after that childhood reading, I thrilled to it again. I know I'm not alone in this either. In fact, Tracy Chevalier has edited a collection of short stories written by some of the most well known women writers today all taking their inspiration from Bronte's famous masterpiece in the aptly titled collection, Reader, I Married Him.The stories collected here range from those which are directly related to the original, Grace Poole's take on Jane in Helen Dunmore's story or Francine Prose's former governess in couples counseling who starts to wonder at so the medical professionals' interest in her own "delusions," to those which are updated and set in modern times but still clearly inspired versions, the neighbors in Lionel Shriver's tale of an invasive tree or Audrey Niggenegger's orphans. There are some stories where the connection to the original Bronte is difficult to tease out, perhaps finding inspiration in the less well known scenes of the novel. The main characters of the modern stories are very different and more diverse than in the original. The relationships depicted run the gamut from conventionally traditional to antagonistic, contentious, or resigned. They include same sex couples, heroines making choices quite opposite of Jane's, and those who invert the power structure of the original work. If the stories didn't always hew closely to Jane Eyre's story line, they each certainly tackled the larger themes at play in the original: love, dependence and independence, loneliness, marriage, the power of choice, and relationships.Some of the stories resonated more with me than others but that is to be expected in a large collection that offers so many different takes, so many different styles, and so many different authors. The tone of the stories varies wildly with some being more Gothic and threatening than others . A few do suggest happy endings but quite a few others promise a trapped, almost claustrophobic feeling in the end, something that my ten year old self never noticed and which my older self tries to pretend isn't there (it is) in the superficially happily ever after ending of the original. This collection has an intriguing and inventive multitude of ways of looking at Jane Eyre which most Bronte fans will enjoy as long as they aren't only looking for retellings that stick faithfully to the original but want tales that allow for creative exploration and unusual takes on their much beloved novel.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I was intrigued by the premise of this short story collection. Tracy Chevalier asked 21 well-known woman writers from around the world to contributes a story inspired by the famous line from Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre: "Reader, I married him." Among the contributors are Helen Dunmore, Sara Hall, Tessa Hadley, Jane Gardam, Emma Donahue, Elif Shafak, Francine Prose, Evie Wyld, Susan Hill, Esther Freud, Audrey Niffenegger, Lionel Shriver, Linda Grant--an impressive list indeed! Several of the stories dig deeper into Bronte's novel, giving us narratives from the points of view of Mr. Rochester or Grace Poole; the latter, by Dunmore, is, in my opinion, the best of the lot. Others move into more contemporary times and situations, focusing variously on relationships happy, not so happy, and mundane. The characters are represented in youth, middle age, and old age, in traditional marriage and in gay relationships, and their stories take place on four continents. At least two are about marriages that never take place. Not every story will please every reader, but there's enough here, I believe, to interest most short story lovers and fans of Jane Eyre>.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    With Reader I Married Him, Tracy Chevalier has compiled an excellent selection of short stories, all based on Jane Eyre's final line. The authors represented include Audrey Niffenegger, Francine Prose, Emma Donoghue, Lionel Shriver and Susan Hill, resulting in an anthology that is varied and imaginative. Some of the stories take place in the same time, or share a character with the famous novel, while others are looser interpretations. The variety keeps each story feeling fresh and surprising. Usually, in a collection of short stories and especially a collection of short stories commissioned around a common theme, there are a few excellent stories, a few that aren't bad and a slew of quickly and carelessly written stories that are not worth the time it takes to read them. This collection avoids that beautifully, having only one story I didn't find to be at least very good, and several that I loved. The variety of authors (and these authors are very different from each other) leads to a refreshing lack of sameness. This is a book I will be happy to read again in a few years.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Commissioned for Charlotte Brontë’s bicentenary, Reader, I Married Him is a celebration of her most famous creation, Jane Eyre, and the themes of ‘love, compromise and self-determination’ embodied by the eponymous heroine. Tracy Chevalier and twenty of today’s most talented and award-winning female authors, including Emma Donoghue, Susan Hill and Audrey Niffenegger, have contributed stories which either reimagine the original novel from a new perspective or gain fresh inspiration from the timeless drama of weddings and marriage.Whether Jane Eyre is your bible or merely another Brontë bestseller, this collection of short stories should appeal to all readers. For devotees of Charlotte’s novel, Helen Dunmore, Francine Prose, Salley Vickers and Audrey Niffenegger have taken aspects of the original in alternative directions with a second look at the characters through modern eyes. What is Grace Poole’s version of events and what does she really think of Jane (‘She came in meek and mild but I knew her at first glance’)? ‘Reader, I married him’ – but could Jane ever be happy with a man like Rochester (‘Marry someone, drive her mad, burn the house down, marry someone else. Repeat’)? And in Salley Vickers’ ‘Reader, She Married Me’, Rochester has his ‘own version of events’.If, like Lionel Shriver, author of We Need to Talk About Kevin, you haven’t read Jane Eyre in years, or like Susan Hill, not at all, then there could be no better introduction to Charlotte’s headstrong governess. Jane’s passionate declaration of ‘Reader, I married him’ links all aspects of the story together, quoting from the original novel while occasionally changing – and challenging – the intended meaning. For the women in Joanna Briscoe’s ‘To Hold’ and Emma Donoghue’s ‘Since First I Saw Your Face’, marriage is a sentence – ‘Reader, I married him because I had to’ – while the words and the narrator are reversed in Tracy Chevalier’s ‘Dorset Gap’ – ‘Reader, she married me’. Like the authors themselves, inspired by Charlotte Brontë’s ‘ambition and imagination’, the stories are all told by women but vary in style and setting. A young girl from Turkey falls in love with an exchange student, an independent widow living alone in the Canadian mountains is the envy of a married woman, marriage as a ‘mash-up’ between cultures, and an African wedding. The unconventional romance in Emma Donoghue’s story is based upon the historical diaries of Mary Benson, who gave her heart to women while married to a man of God, whereas Susan Hill’s famous real-life narrator can indeed claim to have married the man she loved – but at a price. My favourite, though, would have to be Francine Prose’s ‘The Mirror’, a wry and witty revision of Jane Eyre in which the heroine acknowledges not only the reader, but the novel too. A fitting tribute to an author who pushed the boundaries of fiction and created one of literature’s most enduring and beloved heroines.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was an entertaining collection of short stories inspired by "Jane Eyre." I really enjoyed reading all the different styles of writing and the different ways in which each author incorporated "Reader, I Married Him." Very original.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    First up: confession time - I'm not a huge fan of Jane Eyre. It's one of those stories where I was willing her to walk away from him and stand on her own two feet and not submit to convention. As an unequal marriage I always wondered how much chance it had of success. This book takes the story and themes of Jane Eyre and each female writer has written a short story in response. In some of them it is a continuation of the Jane story (with two quite different takes on the outcome) in others it is the same story told from a differen character's persepctive. Others take the story and transpose it in time and place while others riff on the subject of love and marriage - both good and bad. Several take as their start or end point the final lines of Jane Eyre, and in each story the line has a different twist or emphasis. I really enjoyed listening to these.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    These are stories inspired by Jane Eyre. As with any compilation of short stories, some are good, some are bad, but this time the good ones outweigh the bad. My favorite was "The Hold" about a woman with multiple marriages. Wow, is all I have to say. There was “The Orphan Exchange” which centers around the time in the orphanage, wonderful. “The Mirror” is a creepy story from Rochester's perspective which is the very definition of gaslighting. One is from the nurse's point of view, “Grace Poole Her Testimony”. “The Mash-Up” is a funny, crazy story about a marriage between people of different cultures, not really Jayne Eyrish, but still engaging. "Robinson Crusoe at the Waterpark" is about two gay men and their son. At first I didn't really see how it fit in this anthology, but it did. 'My Mother's Wedding" is another kind of creepy story about marriage and family. Lionel Shriver’s “The Self-Seeding Sycamore” is good on so many levels even though it has little to do with Bronte. Chevalier's own "The Dorset Gap" also is not much related to Bronte except in the opposites attract kind of way.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Reader, I Married Him is a collection of short stories by female writers inspired by the famous line from Jane Eyre. The collection brims over with works by numerous well-known authors of literary fiction including Jane Gardam, Emma Donoghue, Salley Vickers, Lionel Shriver, and a good many more authors that you've undoubtedly heard of. Some stories share a direct and obvious connection to Jane Eyre while others simply use marriage as a jumping off point to head in a different direction. Like many short story collections, this one is a bit uneven, but definitely worth a read for some of the highlights.My reaction to Reader, I Married Him covered the usual bases of my reaction to short story collections. A little, "What was the point of that?" with a side of, "I don't get it..." Some, "This is good, but I wish it was a whole book." And, of course, even a bit of "This is really good/clever. Why have I never heard of this author?" Oddly enough, yet somehow par for the course (I am going to mostly unwittingly get *all* the sports analogies into this review, just you watch.), despite this collection running over with big name female authors, the stories I found myself the most taken with were by authors that were unfamiliar to me. In Kirsty Gunn's selection, "Dangerous Dog," a chance encounter with a few boys and a dog whose bark is much worse than his bite changes the life of a fitness trainer taking a writing class. In it, Gunn cleverly re-imagines Mr. Rochester as a dog, and somehow manages to weave together what seem like three stories in just over ten pages. The other story that really captured me was "The China from Buenos Aires" by Patricia Park, about a Korean girl who leaves her Buenos Aires home to go to college in New York City, There she feels homesick and isolated until she happens upon a boy she knew from home, but is ordinary Juan enough to bind her to a place where she never felt at home? (Both of these stories were slam dunks. Please, somebody stop me.)All in all, I found this to be an enjoyable collection. While I may not have been satisfied by each story, since I often find myself unsatisfied by the medium, I was impressed with each author's ability to evoke places and characters so fully in only a few pages. A word to the wise, many of the stories in the collection have, at best, the faintest of connections to Jane Eyre, so if you're seeking mostly obvious parallels, I would advise adjusting your expectations before picking up Reader, I Married Him. However, if you're looking for a solid collection by some well known female authors that is admirably diverse, definitely give this one a try!

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