Let's be honest, the cover was what attracted me to this book. I was so enamored with it, it was like a magnet in the bookstore. I was not thrilled when I read the name Tracy Chevalier on the cover because I had never read anything by her and... let's say that I had certain preconceived notions about her writing. Still, the blurb underneath the title said "Stories inspired by works of Charlotte Bronte" and as a Bronte fan (OK, an Emily Bronte fan) I decided that this would be enough of a reason for me to buy it.

Now, I'm not going to pretend that I read it as soon as I got home. Quite the opposite, actually. I was in a funk for a while - a crazy limbo where I kept buying books, but I wasn't reading them. Then, one day I decided that I would give it a try. So, I actually cracked the book open and realized that these were short stories by various writes and that Chevalier's name is on the cover because she is the editor, not the sole writer. Happy day! 

What these stories have in common is that they all revolve around the sentence "Reader, I married him." that Jane Eyre says in the final chapter of her eponymous novel. They tell the tales of different women and their marriages - some wanted, others not so much - and how they have coped, exploring the happily-ever-after we are supposed to get after saying "I do." Do we get it? Well, some do, while others either suffer in silence or decide to call it quits.

Each author has brought something fresh and new to the table, and every story is a different approach to the theme. Some of the stories didn't work for me, I have to admit, but I liked most, and I feel it is important to read each of them in order to expose ourselves to different perspectives. There is a story that offers Jane's perspective on married life, a story from Mr Rochester's point of view, a same-sex romance, stories that are obviously tied to the source and some that seem s far removed that you wonder if the author knew the assignment. In the end, I did not find this to be something that diminishes the quality of the story.

The ones that I remember loving even now (and I read this a while ago, this post is a long time coming) are the stories by Emma Donoghue (a story about a woman who goes away from her children and her domineering minister husband in order to recuperate, and finds love in an unexpected place), Elif Shafak (a naive Turkish girl is ready to throw everything she knows away for a visiting Dutch boy but reality smacks her in the face) and Patricia Park (a Korean girl moves from Argentina to the USA to find a better life for herself).

I believe this collection is worth the read. It is not heavy and does not require too much emotional investment. The reading ca also be spread out as these are 20 separate stories, therefore you  don't have to read them all at once as there is no cohesive plot to keep track of.