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 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.