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Reader, I Married Him

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Reader, I Married Him

By: not specified, Tracy Chevalier - editor
Narrated by: Laura Kirman
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About this listen

‘This collection is stormy, romantic, strong – the Full Brontë’ The Times

A collection of short stories celebrating Charlotte Brontë, published in the year of her bicentenary and stemming from the now immortal words from her great work Jane Eyre.

The twenty-one stories in Reader, I Married Him – one of the most celebrated lines in fiction – are inspired by Jane Eyre and shaped by its perennially fascinating themes of love, compromise and self-determination.

A bohemian wedding party takes an unexpected turn for the bride and her daughter; a family trip to a Texan waterpark prompts a life-changing decision; Grace Poole defends Bertha Mason and calls the general opinion of Jane Eyre into question. Mr Rochester reveals a long-kept secret in “Reader, She Married Me”, and “The Mirror” boldly imagines Jane’s married life after the novel ends. A new mother encounters an old lover after her daily swim and inexplicably lies to him, and a fitness instructor teaches teenage boys how to handle a pit bull terrier by telling them Jane Eyre’s story.

Edited by Tracy Chevalier, this collection brings together some of the finest and most creative voices in fiction today, to celebrate and salute the strength and lasting relevance of Charlotte Brontë’s game-changing novel and its beloved narrator.

 Anthologies Anthologies & Short Stories Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Women's Fiction Short Story

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Critic reviews

‘Dazzling’ DAILY MAIL

‘The success of this book owes much to [Chevalier’s] enthusiasm … it’s quite amazing to see the quality of work on show’ EVENING STANDARD

‘These stories will enrich and complicate future readings of Jane Eyre, as the best fan fiction should … If Brontë was going to drop in on any of the celebrations for her bicentenary, I can’t help but think she would get a kick out of this collection’ GUARDIAN

‘A terrific set of stories by some of our leading novelists, each of whom engages with a chosen aspect of Jane Eyre’ THE NEW STATESMAN

‘This collection is stormy, romantic, strong – the Full Brontë’ The Times

‘A clever idea well-executed; a treat for fans of short fiction and for Brontë's many ardent fans’ KIRKUS REVIEWS

‘Exemplary…written by some of today's best female writers’ THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE

‘Absorbing and entertaining, READER, I MARRIED HIM is an inventive and a satisfying tribute to a great novel’ Book Reporter

‘These pieces create a beguiling picture of women and men and desire, in which everyone is searching, like Jane, for happiness and wondering whether marriage is really an answer. The book acts as a prism spreading all kinds of literary and historical refractions, and it’s a reminder that Charlotte Brontë, too, has many sides’ GLOBE AND MAIL
All stars
Most relevant
There are some little gems here, don't get me wrong, but too many 'stocking fillers' and nothing big enough to be a 'main present'. The performance too, is patchy, too many mispronunciations of common enough words and names, which set my teeth on edge. If I had read it first I wouldn't have wasted a credit on it.

A Mixed Bag

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The stories in this book are excellent. But there really should have been someone directing and overseeing the narration. The reader has a very nice voice and 9 out of 10 sentences she reads very well. But sometimes she will put the emphasis in a sentence in a way that actually alters the meaning and makes it sound as if she has not been taking in the sense of what she’s reading. She also has odd inconsistencies in pronunciation. She pronounced ‘deters’ as ‘debtors’, ‘twined’ is pronounced ‘twinned’, and some words are pronounced as though she has never heard them spoken aloud (e.g. ‘averred’ ‘emissary’ and ‘flagration’). Some words are pronounced differently within the same story (e.g. ‘vase’). It sounds as though the narrator was left to get on with it, and no producer was listening through and asking for corrections etc. I found it really hard to listen to the stories because I found myself so annoyed at the mistakes and oddities in the narrator’s style.

Very strange narration style

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