Welcome to Jane Eyre, a slow read from The Tattooed Governess

This is our second reading debrief, which covers the text up to the end of Chapter Twenty-five.

**Please note: if you have not yet read up to the end of Chapter 25, this reading debrief contains spoilers.

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Welcome to Jane Eyre, a slow read from The Tattooed Governess

This is our second reading debrief, which covers the text up to the end of Chapter 23.

**Please note: if you have not yet read up to the end of Chapter 23, this reading debrief contains spoilers.

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Welcome to Jane Eyre, a slow read from The Tattooed Governess

This is our sixth reading debrief, which covers the text up to the end of Chapter Twenty.

**Please note: if you have not yet finished Chapter 20, this reading debrief contains spoilers.

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Welcome to Jane Eyre, a slow read from The Tattooed Governess

This is our second reading debrief, which covers the text up to the end of Chapter 17.

**Please note: if you have not yet read through Chapter 17, this reading debrief contains spoilers.

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Welcome to Jane Eyre, a slow read from The Tattooed Governess

This is our fourth reading debrief, which covers up to the end of Chapter Fourteen.

**Please note: if you have not yet read up to Chapter 14, this reading debrief contains spoilers.

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Welcome to Jane Eyre, a slow read from The Tattooed Governess

This is our third reading debrief, which covers the text up to the end of Chapter Eleven.

**Please note: if you have not yet read up through the end of Chapter 11, this reading debrief contains spoilers.

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Welcome to Jane Eyre, a slow read from The Tattooed Governess

This is our second reading debrief, which covers the text up to the end of Chapter Eight.

**Please note: if you have not yet read up to Chapter Eight, this reading debrief contains spoilers.

If you have not yet read through Chapter Eight, return to the debrief that covers the text you have read

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Welcome to Jane Eyre, a slow read from The Tattooed Governess

This is our first reading debrief, which covers the text up to the end of Chapter 4.

**Please note: if you have not yet read up to the end of Chapter 4, this reading debrief contains spoilers. We recommend reading the text for the week before listening to the debrief.

Chapters discussed: Chapte…

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To read this week: Chapters 1-4

At last we begin! Thank you everyone for your patience as I’ve prepared for our next slow read. We are off and reading today.

This week’s podcast covers:

• Updated slow reading practices as we begin our second book

• The structure for Jane Eyre debriefs

• What made me choose Jane Eyre

Going forward, you’ll receive a weekly podcast debrief of the reading, which will also appear as a written post if you prefer reading to listening.

This week’s post is free to listen to (or read below), but moving forward all slow read content is for paid members only. Listening today will give you a taste to help you decide if you want to join us at the last minute. (I hope you do!)

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Welcome to The Tattooed Governess and Jane Eyre

How I approach Slow Reads

There are multiple highly qualified people offering excellent slow reads on Substack and elsewhere. I admire many of them and have taken part in many of their slow reads. The first one I ever did was War and Peace with Yiyun Li of before it came to Substack. I've done the Wolf Crawl with Simon Haisell of and read Middlemarch with and have enjoyed these slow reads immensely.

I learned a huge amount running the previous slow read for Possession, and am excited to continue learning with Jane Eyre. We are exploring a classic this time, so there is more to consider about craft as it has changed over the nearly two centuries since Jane Eyre was written, which allows us to learn more about what we take for granted in today’s fiction.

Most of the sections we had in the previous slow read remain, but I’ve added a new feature that I hope you will all enjoy, but that will be a surprise coming in the first debrief next week.

As an extra resource, we added slow read journal pages to the 2026 Your Writing Year planner, which you can find here:

Why Jane Eyre?

I’m thrilled to bring you this slow read of Jane Eyre, and I wanted to share what drew me to this particular book.

First, it’s one of my favorite classics. But beyond my personal love for it, I noticed a gap: I hadn’t seen anyone else doing a slow read of this novel. Given how many of us adore this book, it felt like the perfect opportunity to create a space where we could explore it together.

Jane Eyre occupies a fascinating position—it feels simultaneously modern and old-fashioned, familiar yet distinctly of its time. This contrast makes it especially rich for close examination.

A Revolutionary Narrative Choice

One of the most striking aspects is Brontë’s use of first-person narration. This would have been quite unusual in the 1840s, as even up to the late 20th century third person was the preferred POV for literary fiction.

Brontë framed Jane Eyre as a fictional memoir as a way to make first feel natural for that era’s reader. For us as writers and readers, this makes it a fascinating text to study—at first this choice feels very natural to us, but we must remember that she was breaking rules with her POV choice.

The Original Reading Weirdo

But here’s what I think truly explains this book’s enduring power: Jane Eyre herself.

For those of us who spent our childhoods with our noses in books, feeling that books were more our friends than the world around us, Jane speaks directly to our experience. Her misfit quality, her earnestness, her passion for reading, learning, drawing, and discovery—combined with her struggle to fit in socially—has rung true for generations of reading weirdos.

There are many classics we encounter throughout our education, but Jane Eyre has always been the character I related to most, and I suspect many of you felt the same.

What We’ll Explore Together

Immersing ourselves in this world for an extended period gives us the chance to examine its construction: how Brontë built this novel, what she attempted, and how she succeeded in creating a character who feels relatable to readers even 150+ years later.

I look forward to spending time with Jane—and spending time with you—as we explore this remarkable book together.

Today, February 2, we begin reading.

Hopefully, you have your copy of the book already, but there's still time to catch up because the weekly reading is meant to be extremely manageable.

The way this is going to work is that every Monday you will get a reading debrief like this one, both as a podcast episode, which you'll be able to subscribe to and listen to, or if you prefer to read, it will be formatted just like this one was, as a post.

We’ll start sharing thoughts on our first section of reading next Monday.

You will read first, and then the debrief will come on the first day of our next week of reading. This is so you have time to read and form your own opinions and your own thoughts. In addition, there are some twists and turns in this book, so I want to preserve your being able to read them in the text before I comment.

Here’s a link to the reading schedule post, and it aligns with full chapters this round, making it even easier to use any edition you like:

I've heard from many people finding use copies, copies and charity shops, and this makes me really happy as it's one benefit of reading an older book that is not exactly a classic, but I think. We could make it one.

I invite you, if you're not listening to this already signed up to join us, we will have discussions about our reading starting from next Monday once we finish the first section, and to build our relationships to a truly, truly rich and delightful cast of characters that have been living inside my mind for months now and years ever since I first read the book. I expect you will have the same experience.

If you're not yet a member and joining us, I encourage you to sign up today. Let's build a beautiful space that we can enjoy and give ourselves a gift this year of immersing ourselves in story. I can't wait to begin. Happy reading, and I'll be back next week with our first debrief.

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Thank you for being here.

Welcome to The Tattooed Governess slow reads.

A few words on how we’ll keep this a safe space:

When we open commenting for the previous week’s pages, please confine your comments to the pages we’ve just read or those before that point. NO SPOILERS if you’ve read the book before. This novel has some twists and a mystery running through it. Any comments that break this rule will be deleted.

Please also comment and discuss with a spirit of kindness. Everyone here loves books and reading, but everyone here is a unique human with a whole life around them. People’s opinions about characters, events, and favorite passages will differ. Please confine your comments to your own thoughts. If anyone posts comments that criticize another participant’s reading, they will be removed.

Bottom line: comment and discuss as you’d like people to write to you. It’s a rough world out there, and I built this space to be a refuge. It will be moderated to maintain that safety.

If you’ve read (or listened) this far, and aren’t yet a paid member, now’s the time to upgrade your membership to continue on with us.

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** Special thanks to Emily Hawkins, my friend who composed our beautiful theme music once again.

We begin 2 February

For this slow read, you can use any copy of Jane Eyre as the schedule does line up with chapter endings this round. Many thanks to Charlotte Brontë for her consistent chapter length.

We will begin reading on February 2nd, and the debrief for Week One (2-8 February) will arrive on 9 February. Each week moving forward, you’ll get the debrief after you’ve read that week’s pages, so you have time to read and reflect before hearing my take and discussing with others.

In addition, we have a “catch-up week” mid-read, which many people were grateful to have during our last session. Life does take over from time to time, and this will give everyone space to catch up, as needed.

And now… on to the schedule!

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We have a theme!

Introducing the theme music for the Jane Eyre slow read. Once again, original track composed by the brilliant composer Emily Hawkins, who will be reading along with us.

During our last slow read, listeners requested a version of the track without me speaking over it, so here it is for you to enjoy on its own.

Many thanks to Emily for her incredible ability to grasp my strange notes and references to create something beautiful that perfectly captures the atmosphere of Jane Eyre.

Jane Eyre reading schedule arrives 23 January

I’ll be posting the reading schedule this Friday so you can tab your books before we begin reading on 2 February.

Time to get excited!

If you haven’t yet upgraded to a paid membership and want to join us for Jane Eyre, this would be an excellent time to do so.

If you’re all signed up, share this post with any reading friends you’d like to have along with us. The more the merrier!

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It’s almost time

We’re hard at work over at the Tattooed Governess, because Jane Eyre is about to begin. Our incredible composer, Emily Hawkins, just sent me the beginning of our theme music for this slow read, and it is sounding so so beautiful.

Are you ready to read?

Members of The Tattooed Governess get full access to our slow reads, which happen twice a year. For those who haven’t taken part before, here’s how they work:

We read the selected book together, following our reading schedule (coming before the end of January). You read the pages first, and at the end of each reading week, I post the reading debrief. This is so you can read and form your own impressions before we discuss.

At the END of each week, we discuss the pages up to that point in the comments. No spoilers! (Yes, there will be people joining who are reading Jane Eyre for the first time.)

Our reading will take place over 14 weeks, including a one-week catch-up period in the middle of our session.

Any edition of the book is welcome. The entire reading schedule aligns with chapter endings, so any copy will do. There are thousands of editions of this book, so grab a used one or find one that you’ll love to see on the shelf — up to you!

If you haven’t yet upgraded your subscription, now is an excellent time to do so.

We’ll be off and running on February 2. Can’t wait to see you then!

Subscribe now

Earlier this year, quite close together, Simon and I each sparked on the idea of slow reading A.S. Byatt. A prizewinning brilliant author, she wrote multiple novels that captured both awards and popular readership, topping bestseller charts. Possession and Angels & Insects were each adapted as films, and many people count her books as all-time favorites.

I’d read Possession in my twenties, and was pulled back to it this spring, devouring it in days and immediately possessed with the idea of doing a slow read myself. Simon was pointed toward Byatt by requests from the Footnotes & Tangents community and was quickly ensnared by her writing.

In this conversation, we look at what makes a book a good candidate for a slow read, how Simon got started running read-a-longs on Substack, and when you can expect to read A.S. Byatt via each of our publications… Simon spills one title I cannot wait to read with F&T in 2026.

For those wondering where to direct requests for A.S. Byatt t-shirts (other than my husband, who made mine for me) please ask girlparts.co to add this brilliant author to their offerings. If we all ask them, I suspect they will do it!

To join the Possession slow read September 1

Simply upgrade to a paid subscription here at Book & Craft Alchemy.1 You’ll automatically get the weekly reading debrief, which will come as a podcast and a written post.

We start reading September 1 with an introduction post from me, and discussion and the debriefs will begin September 8 — we’re discuss and debrief once everyone has finished the pages for that week.

The reading schedule will be up August 27th and is edition agnostic. Many people have reported finding copies in charity shops, which is wonderful. Any copy works!

UPGRADE TO JOIN POSSESSION

Thanks again to and all the crowd who joined us live. You really made this an occasion and we’re already looking forward to doing it again in the future.