In 2018, I was lucky enough to go on a pilgrimage to Sussex, England, with 14 women, two men,

and Virginia Woolf's masterpiece to the lighthouse.

One of the days on this trip, we hired a man to take us on a hike around the area.

He was charming and informative.

Towards the end of the day, we asked him if he liked to the lighthouse.

He said, no, I don't read Virginia Woolf.

I don't tend to like books that take place in drawing rooms.

I have never seen a group of people turn on someone faster in my life.

Know what happens in drawing rooms, random hike leader man?

Conversations about money, love, relationships, birthdays take place in drawing rooms,

wakes, proposals, daily dinners, life happens in drawing rooms,

and most of this chapter, chapter four of Jane Eyre, takes place in a drawing room.

In chapter four, Jane is officially shunned from Gateshead.

At first, she's shunned and yet still trapped inside.

She gets put into a closet to sleep and is ignored for months.

Her only friends are her doll and a bird out her window.

One day after this prolonged abuse of abject neglect, Jane is beckoned for.

Out of nowhere, she must go downstairs with Ace.

What she finds in the room to which she was beckoned, the drawing room to which she was beckoned,

are two people who believe she needs to spend her life humiliated and humbled

and who have made it one of their missions to make sure that this happens.

Aunt Reed has brought in a headmaster of an institution to take Jane away, Mr. Brocklehurst.

...