I could easily have asked 20 white English female writers of a certain age, and I could have filled up the book several times over.
I thought she might bring something different to the project. I was looking for different takes on the idea of marriage and relationships, and I had really liked her novel Black Mambo Boy. TC: I know, I know, Nadifa Mohamed’s “Party Girl”! She’s amazing, of Sudanese origin, and a phenomenal writer. The novel is a sort of life lesson in watching a woman grow.īP: The Charlotte Brontë Bicentenary is significant in large part because Jane Eyre is such a revolutionary, important work. That’s what makes the book, in the end-not the moors, not the orphanage, but how Jane remains strong and determined and very much herself no matter what is thrown at her. I was enamored of her character, and that’s what’s stayed with me.
But I think, even if it’s a kind of qualified happy ending, that it means something to readers because Jane has grown. It’s so satisfying to have him fall in love with her, and it’s a happy ending even though he’s much reduced. I remember being really taken with the romance between Jane and Rochester, which is unbelievable and yet believable at the same time. TC: I first encountered Jane Eyre in college, as an English major at Oberlin. TC: Originally, I wasn’t going to write a story, but a couple of my contributors pressured me into it-again, not in a bad way! I’m actually glad I did it not only did I have a lot of fun writing “Dorset Gap,” but it helped me with the whole process, with remembering that the bigger picture of a collection is made up of individual pieces.īP: What draws you to Brontë’s great work? To its protagonist? I spoke with Tracy by telephone from her London home (she is married to an Englishman, with whom she has a son) about the project, its contributors, and what an African village might share with Thornfield Hall.īP: You’re a contributor to the anthology, too. Although the title of Chevalier’s anthology is that famous line, her fellow writers take their themes, plots, and characters from many different aspects of the iconic novel. Tracy Chevalier, the author of nine novels (including Girl with a Pearl Earring and Burning Bright), loves Brontë’s Jane Eyre so much that she decided to pay it homage by putting together an anthology of short stories inspired by Brontë and her characters. The once-homeless Jane takes on the role of caregiver rather than grand chatelaine.Īpril 2016 marks the bicentennial of Charlotte Brontë’s birth.
Rochester, who has seen his first wife fall to her death from the roof of their burning house and has himself wound up blind, is a shadow of his former imperious self. Rochester, it may be a happy ending for Charlotte Brontë’s novel, but it’s hardly a conventional one. “Reader, I married him” is one of the most famous lines in English literature, and justifiably so: When Jane Eyre tells us that she has wed Mr. Tracy Chevalier will host an evening honoring Charlotte Bronte’s 200th birthday with a reading from Jane Eyre and a new collection inspired by Bronte’s most beloved line at Symphony Space on March 16th, featuring appearances by Audrey Niffenegger and Namwali Serpell.
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