British Accent Shadowing | Jane Eyre | Learn RP Pronunciation – Part 1

Welcome to British Accent Shadowing, where you can practise Received Pronunciation (known as RP),

intonation, and the natural rhythm of spoken British English with me,

Ashley Howard — voice coach and accent trainer. This episode launches a new series exploring Jane

Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, a masterpiece of English literature with beautifully expressive language.

First, I’ll read the full passage at natural speed so you can hear the flow

and melody of RP English. Then we’ll break it down line by line so you can repeat after me,

refining your pronunciation, intonation, and speaking fluency. Finally,

we’ll go through it together at full pace so you can speak along confidently.

You can also download a free PDF with the text and vocabulary explanations to help you follow

along — the link is in the description below. Let’s get started.

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 observations, 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.”

A breakfast-room adjoined the drawing-room. I slipped in there.

It contained a bookcase. I soon possessed myself

of a volume, taking care that it should be one stored with pictures.

I mounted into the window-seat.

Gathering up my feet, I sat cross-legged, like a Turk.

And, having drawn the red moreen curtain nearly close, I was shrined