Introductory material
Reading edition
The stories marked with an asterisk (*) are now published for the first time.
I am alone; it is the dead of night; I am not gone to rest, because my mind Is too much raised for sleep. The silent light Of the dim taper streams its unseen wind, And quite as voiceless, on the hearth, burns bright The ruddy ember: now no ear can find A sound, however faint, to break the lull Of which the shadowy realm of dreams is full.
Charlotte Brontë