Read Jane Eyre in Daily Email Installments
An orphan with nothing — no money, no family, no beauty, by her own account — talks to you directly for five hundred pages and you believe every word. Jane Eyre leaves a cruel aunt for a charity school, and the school for Thornfield Hall, where she is hired as governess by a master who is rarely home and hard to read. What follows made the novel famous overnight in 1847, and it has not gone out of print since.
One installment a day: 334 days — about eleven months. Pause, rewind, or stop anytime.
Start reading — freeWhy read Jane Eyre?
Jane Eyre was published under the pen name “Currer Bell,” and its first readers argued about whether the author could possibly be a woman — no one, it was felt, had ever written a heroine this blunt about what she wanted. Jane is small, plain, poor, and completely uninterested in apologizing for herself; the novel is her own account, told to “Reader” directly, of how she refused every offer that asked her to be less than she was.
It is also a superb gothic page-turner. Thornfield Hall has a laugh in its corridors that no one will explain, a fire in the night, a guest who arrives pale and leaves bleeding, and a master, Mr. Rochester, whose teasing conversations with his governess are among the best sparring matches in English fiction. The mystery resolves in one of the most famous scenes ever written — which we will not spoil here, and which our installment recaps are carefully written never to reveal early.
We serialize the complete novel in Charlotte Brontë's original text, broken at her own chapter seams, with a “Previously” recap on every installment. Eleven months sounds long; three minutes a day does not.
What an installment looks like
There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs. Reed, when there was no company, dined early) the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre, and a rain so penetrating, that further outdoor exercise was now out of the question.
I was glad of it: I never liked long walks, especially on chilly afternoons: dreadful to me was the coming home in the raw twilight, with nipped fingers and toes, and a heart saddened by the chidings of Bessie, the nurse, and humbled by the consciousness of my physical inferiority to Eliza, John, and Georgiana Reed.
The said Eliza, John, and Georgiana were now clustered round their mama in the drawing-room: she lay reclined on a sofa by the fireside, and with her darlings about her (for the time neither quarrelling nor crying) looked perfectly happy. Me, she had dispensed from joining the group; saying, “She regretted to be under the necessity of keeping me at a distance; but that until she heard from Bessie, and could discover by her own observation, that I was endeavouring in good earnest to acquire a more sociable and childlike disposition, a more attractive and sprightly manner—something lighter, franker, more natural, as it were—she really must exclude me from privileges intended only for contented, happy, little children.”
“What does Bessie say I have done?” I asked.
“Jane, I don’t like cavillers or questioners; besides, there is something truly forbidding in a child taking up her elders in that manner. Be seated somewhere; and until you can speak pleasantly, remain silent.”
Questions
How long does it take to read Jane Eyre?
About twelve hours straight through (184,488 words). By email, it's 334 daily installments of 2–3 minutes each — just under a year, or a few months at a premium pace of two or three installments a day.
Is Jane Eyre hard to read?
No — it's one of the most readable of the Victorian classics. It's a first-person voice, direct and often funny, and the chapters are built on conversation and incident rather than description. The serialized format helps with the one real obstacle, which is length.
What is Jane Eyre about, without spoilers?
An orphan survives a brutal childhood, takes a job as a governess at a remote country house, and falls into a battle of wits with her employer — while the house itself keeps a secret from her. It's a love story, a mystery, and a declaration of independence at once.
Which edition is this?
Charlotte Brontë's original English text (no translation needed), in the carefully typeset Standard Ebooks edition, drawn from the public-domain text. Her second-edition preface — interesting, but not the novel — is omitted so installment 1 opens on the story's own first line.
Do the recaps spoil the twist?
No. Every recap covers only the previous installment, and the recaps are written under a strict rule: nothing is named before the page where Jane herself learns it. What you know tracks exactly what she knows.
How does it arrive?
One email a day at the hour you pick, with a one-line recap of the previous installment at the top. Free. Unsubscribe or pause anytime.
Pick your delivery hour, confirm your email, and installment 1 of 334 arrives with the next send. Free, and unsubscribe anytime.
Start Jane EyreBrowse all books · How long does a classic take? Try the calculator