This essay is a reflection on my teaching of "Jane Eyre" to a small intervention class in a large London secondary school. It is a reflection on the nature of reading as set out historically in educational policy and within hierarchies of power in school, in juxtaposition with the lived experiences of reading in the classroom. It is an acknowledgement of the fleeting and, at times, imperceptible nature of reading with students in the classroom, and of what a deep engagement with a text might look like.