Hi everybody, we wanted to let you know that in partnership with the Fetzer Institute,

we have been able to offer some scholarships for two of our upcoming pilgrimages.

Our Duke by Default pilgrimage, we can offer a $1,500 scholarship and our Harry Potter

and the Prisoner of Azkaban pilgrimage, we can offer $1,000 scholarships.

To find out more, go to readingandwalkingwith.com, we can only do this while supplies last.

We have five spots available on each trip, I hope to see you there.

Go to readingandwalkingwith.com.

In 1847, two years after the publication of Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte wrote to her friend

W.S. Williams, in her letter she said the following about the portrayal of Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre.

It is true that profound pity ought to be the only sentiment elicited by the view of such degradation.

And equally true is that I have not sufficiently dwelt on that feeling.

I have erred in making horror too predominant.

Jean Ries agreed with Bronte's self-criticism.

Ries was a white creole writer who mostly wrote in the 1920s and 30s,

but spent about two decades towards the end of her life writing W.S. Argasso C.

W.S. Argasso C is a prequel of Jane Eyre telling the story of Bertha and how she ended up in that attic at Thornfield Hall.

Ries said she wanted to give Bertha a voice.

She said, quote,

The creole in Charlotte Bronte's novel is a lay figure, repulsive, which does not matter,

and not once alive, which does.

She's necessary to the plot, but always she shrieks, howls, laughs horribly, attacks all, and sundry off stage.

For me and for you, I hope she must be right on stage.

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