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:

Audrey Niffenegger

Elif Shafak

Elizabeth McCracken

Emma Donoghue

Esther Freud

Evie Wyld

Francine Prose

Helen Dunmore

Jane Gardam

Joanna Briscoe

Linda Grant

Lionel Shriver

Nadifa Mohamed

Patricia Park

Roxane Gay

Salley Vickers

Sarah Hall

Susan Hill

Tessa Hadley

Namwali Serpell

Kirsty Gunn

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.