Hello and welcome to Storytime for grownups.

I'm Faith Moore, and this season we're reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

Each episode, I'll read one chapter from the book,

pausing from time to time to give brief explanations so it's easier to follow along.

It's like an audiobook with built-in notes.

So brew a pot of tea, find a cozy chair,

and settle in. A listener,

Patty, has sent me a Jane Eyre doll, which she made for me herself. It is the cutest thing. I cannot tell you how excited I am to have received this doll. Thank you, Patty. So if you want to take a look and see it,

you can go over to my ex at Faith K. Moore. I posted a picture. It is the cutest thing. She has a bonnet. She has a cloak. She has

a demure gray dress. She's got brown hair in a very kind of severe bun, just like I imagine

Jane would have. It's amazing. I love it. I am thrilled with my Jane Air doll. She's going to

now keep me company every time I

record an episode of Storytime for Grownups. And here she is with me now. So you can check out a

picture of that. And thank you very much to Patty for sending me this doll of Jane Eyre.

And welcome. Welcome to everyone to episode 23 of Storytime for grownups. I'm glad, as always,

to be here with you. Welcome to everyone in whatever stage of the journey you're in. I got messages

again this time saying that people had finally caught up. I know it's a bittersweet thing to

catch up because when you've been binging, then you're living with this story in a much more profound and all-encompassing way

than you are when you're just getting an episode on a Monday and a Thursday. But the flip side

to that is that you get to be with us here in real time experiencing the story together. And even though we're not

actually physically together, I do feel that there is a kind of experience that is going on that

has developed between all of us as we uncover the next chapter each time and react to it together,

...