Search - The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, Bk 1)

Surreal and hilariously funny, this alternate history, the debut novel of British author Fforde, will appeal to lovers of zany genre work (think Douglas Adams) and lovers of classic literature alike. The scene: Great Britain circa 1985, but a Great Britain where literature has a prominent place in everyday life. For pennies, corner Will-Speak machines will quote Shakespeare; Richard III is performed with audience participation … la Rocky Horror and children swap Henry Fielding bubble-gum cards. In this world where high lit matters, Special Operative Thursday Next (literary detective) seeks to retrieve the stolen manuscript of Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit. The evil Acheron Hades has plans for it: after kidnapping Next's mad-scientist uncle, Mycroft, and commandeering Mycroft's invention, the Prose Portal, which enables people to cross into a literary text, he sends a minion into Chuzzlewit to seize and kill a minor character, thus forever changing the novel. Worse is to come. When the manuscript of Jane Eyre, Next's favorite novel, disappears, and Jane herself is spirited out of the book, Next must pursue Hades inside Charlotte Bront‰'s masterpiece. The plethora of oddly named characters can be confusing, and the story's episodic nature means that the action moves forward in fits and starts. The cartoonish characters are either all good or all bad, but the villain's comeuppance is still satisfying. Witty and clever, this literate romp heralds a fun new series set in a wonderfully original world.

A very impressive first novel by author Fforde. In his alternate England circa 1985, literature plays an important part. There are animatronic Will-Speak machines that for a few pence quote Shakespeare; Richard III is akin to Rocky Horror complete with audience participation, and the LiteraTec division of the SpecOps stamps out literary crime.

The protagonist Thursday Next is a seasoned LiteraTec. But when she's temporarily promoted to SO-5 status to assist in the capture of her former professor turned Master Criminal, she finds herself in over her head. Master Criminal Hades has discovered a little secret. If he changes events in an original manuscript he can forever alter all future printings. These changes are immediate and permanent unless the original can be restored. When he kidnaps Jane Eyre from the pages of Bronte's manuscript, fans are in an uproar, since the original is written in the first person without Jane there is no story. Thursday and her cohorts jump in to rescue Jane, and restore the beloved novel.

Jasper Fforde has quite an imagination, and an off-the-wall sense of humor that made this book a delight to read. I'm looking forward to the following novels in the series.

Imagine a Britain where Winston Churchill never lived past his teen years; a Britain that has been at war with Russia for over a hundred years; a Britain where time travel is practiced; a Britain where literature is as popular as sports or reality shows are in our reality. This is the Britain where Tuesday Next lives. She is an agent for a government agency that solves crimes involving literature. When the evil Acheron Hades begins using a device that can send humans into the world of a poem or a novel, he uses it for his own gain.

For book geeks, The Eyre Affair is a hilarious treat. Jasper Fford's wit is on par with Douglas Adams and his imagination is reminiscent of J. K. Rowling. Many lit references abound in the story, and I'm sure I missed many of them, but the ones I caught were great. The first two/thirds of the story really serve to set up the last third, where Agent Next must rescue Jane Eyre, who has been pulled into our reality by Hades. If the reader has read Jane Eyre, there is probably no need to re-read it for The Eyre Affair, but the reader who has never read Charlotte Bronte's classic, I recommend reading it first the get the full effect.

The Eyre Affair is my favorite new book. It's just so much jolly-good fun.

Fast fun read.

I didn't exactly not like this book, but it was not at all what I expected. It took until about page 260 for me to be interested. And only another 40 pages before I was bored again. I was very intrigued by the premise, and have had this on my shelf for years. I'm kinda sad that it didn't live up to what I thought it should have. This is probably in part due to the fact that I hated Jane Eyre, so maybe if another book had been chosen to start the series, I would have continued on. But alas, this was not the case, and I won't be continuing. Though I will give kudos for the character names: Thursday Next, Jack Schitt, Paige Turner, Analogy and Hades!

My guess is that unless you’re in the mood for something entirely zany this book will leave you cold. Fortunately I was and so I had a great time reading it, laughing all the way and insisting on reciting entire sections to my poor husband who didn't always appreciate being interrupted. It probably also helped to have majored in English literature and to enjoy occasional forays into the realm of speculative fiction where alternative universes and time travel are commonplace. In this case what made for the most fun was the fact that in this version of London circa 1985, life revolved around literature – even for the crooks and criminals who go around kidnapping major characters from classic books – which is what happened here when Jane Eyre is suddenly snatched from the famous Bronte novel. It’s a world where people can literally get lost in a good book, running the risk of changing important plot lines forever, or being stuck in literary landscapes as did one unlucky character who found herself wandering around for days looking at daffodils with William Wordsworth. Naturally this kind of world requires extra vigilance on the part of the authorities responsible for keeping plot lines intact and so someone like literary detective Thursday Next has her work cut out for her. Fortunately she’s up to the task and thanks to Fforde’s imagination it’s a hoot following along as she hunts down the villain responsible for stealing the original manuscript of Charles Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit before the book is altered forever.