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!)
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 A Public Space before it came to Substack. I've done the Wolf Crawl with Simon Haisell of Footnotes and Tangents and read Middlemarch with haley larsen, phd 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.
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.
** Special thanks to Emily Hawkins, my friend who composed our beautiful theme music once again.
