My Mother’s Wedding

A short story by Tessa Hadley from the collection Reader, I Married Him: Stories inspired by Jane Eyre.

In ‘My Mother’s Wedding’, a bohemian wedding party takes an unexpected turn for the bride and her daughter.

Edited by Tracy Chevalier, the full collection, Reader, I Married Him, 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.

Reviews

Praise for the full collection, READER, I MARRIED HIM:
‘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

About the author

Tessa Hadley is the author of six highly praised novels,
Accidents in the Home, which was shortlisted for the Guardian
First Book Award, Everything Will be All Right, The Master
Bedroom, The London Train, Clever Girl and The Past. She
is also the author of two collections of stories, Sunstroke
and Married Love. She lives in London and is Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. Her stories appear
regularly in the New Yorker and other magazines. She cannot
remember the first time she read Jane Eyre, but it must have
gone in deep, and it’s never stopped working. And whenever
she’s cleaning she remembers Jane and Hannah getting Moor House ready for Christmas.