The Eyre Affair

I am absolutely thrilled with the world of Thursday Next as created by Fforde. At first, I thought it was odd that he planned to take us a mere ~20 years into the past when creating this world. But as I continued into the story, I was entranced by the intricate world that had been created by

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Fforde's wonderful brush strokes. This definitely isn't the 1985 I grew up in.

There are so many intricacies that make this world great, it's hard to pinpoint just one or two favorites. As a fan of "conspiracies" and "secret police" and other "above the law" organizations, I really enjoyed the SpecOps and Goliath organizations, the first being government sanctioned and the other being a corporate entity with a stranglehold on the government. I loved that SpecOps was more than just a "police" force, but rather dealt with intriguing and fantastical ideas like time travel, supernatural creatures and, of course, literary crimes.

The idea of "crimes of literature" was actually part of what attracted me to this novel in the first place. I've been a fan of books and literature for as long as I can really remember. I remember being outraged while reading Fahrenheit 451. This world is sort of the antithesis of the 451 world. In the world of Thursday Next, books and literature are vitally important to the world.

I loved picturing rabid fans of Shakespeare having riots over the authorship of the Bard's plays (I really loved the "resolution" provided at the end of the book). I found it fascinating to think of there being uprisings at slight textual changes in books or at disappearances of very minor characters in other books. The idea of actually stepping into a novel was by far the most exciting literary concept presented.

Imagine, being able to step inside a favorite novel or poem and actually experience it first hand! I also loved (and I won't "spoil" this for you) the idea the Goliath corp had for the technology.

Fforde's world and creativity are amazing. There were moments that I felt as though he was going too far down a path he didn't need to. But the depth and detail he gave to his interesting creations made it all worth it. And then seeing him link together seemingly innocuous events and items was all the more rewarding. (My sis-in-law mentioned that some of the innocuous actions he presented in this first book actually play into the plot of the 3rd book...awesome!).

I also loved the "excerpts" from other books (also fictionally created by our author) added at the beginning of each chapter. This was a great subtle and yet effective and intriguing touch.

Apart from the occasional moments when it felt like things were "dragging" unnecessarily (which, as I mentioned above, played themselves out), my only other real complaint was the interference from the Bookworms into the text itself. After the Bookworms ate down hyphens and ampersands, the spoken words of the characters became very annoying to read. I think that could have been a little more subtle, or ignored completely.

Otherwise, an amazingly wonderful book and I'm excited to continue in the series.

****
4 stars

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Perhaps I am being overly harsh, but I found this book to be a major disappointment. I'm huge fan of British comedy and science fiction--Monty Python, Douglas Adams, Dr. Who, Neil Gaiman--and something of an autodidact lit geek, so this novel which promises the exploits of a special agent who has

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to travel into the novel Jane Eyre in pursuit of a villain sounds right up my alley. So, what went wrong?

Let's start with the world building. While Fforde's alternate universe England is quite inventive, it's also tonally weird. England has been locked in the Crimean War all the way into the present day (circa 1985), with no end in sight, and the government appears to be controlled by a large corporation dubbed (unsubtly) the Goliath Corporation. OK, so this is some sort of dystopia, right? But wait, thanks to cloning, scientists have been able to bring dodos out of extinction, and it turns out that they make great pets! Like, ohmigod, is that cute or what? The Eyre Affair may be the only dystopic novel I've read in which the Bread and Circuses are intended as much for the reader as for the regime's subjects. (Oh, if only Big Brother had thought to provide everyone with messenger owls, 1984 could have been a much more amusing novel!)

Second, there's the use of names. As Roger Ebert once said, "Funny names, in general, are a sign of desperation." I'd like to amend that slightly to say, it's really a bad idea for a novel to feature characters whose names are vastly more interesting than their personalities. Heroine Thursday Next gets a pass, as does main baddy Acheron Hades, but I can't think of anything funny about Paige Turner, Victor Analogy or Alexandria Belfridge.

Oh, and let me just say, Acheron Hades' motivation to engage in villainy for no reason because pointless wickedness is the purest form of wickedness? I know it's supposed to make him seem particularly evil, but it just makes him seem arbitrary. I kept expecting the revelation that he was an escapee from a second-rate potboiler.

The biggest failure, though, is how panderingly The Eyre Affair wields its metatextuality. Dead British authors are like celebrities in Fforde's England. People change their names to John Milton out of devotion. Robo-Shakespeares quote the bard from every corner. Surrealists somehow manage to spark riots. (This joins with the whole Crimean War aspect to give the sense that England is terribly stagnant. None of the authors that inspire devotion ever saw the 20th century. And surrealism is controversial enough to spark riots? Really, how very quaint.)

The scene that really put me off, and which should have inspired me to quit the novel, was the performance of a Rocky Horror version of Richard III, after which a couple of the characters discuss how much they love classic literature. Perhaps I'm misguided, but I was under the impression that Richard III is about misguided ambition and political corruption, not a set of meaningless references for stoners to hang cheesy jokes off of. And I think this sort of encapsulates why I just did not enjoy this book. It may be hyperliterate in its use of references, but the effect often feels superficial. In the action revolving around the titular novel, Jane Eyre is reduced to a damsel in distress and Rochester to a straightforward hero, the complex characters I so loved in their original context reduced to cardboard cutouts.

So, sorry, just did not enjoy this novel. I have to confess though, if I ever got a hold of one of those devices, you know the first thing I'd do. Carpet bomb Fforde's England with copies of every major modernist and postmodernist work from the last century. I'd like to think I'd be treated as a liberator.

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It was some time in the 80s, after the started cloning dodo birds. I admit, I never really liked reading Jane Eyre, but at times, I wish I had paid more attention when I had read it, so that I could remember how it used to be.

Who would have thought that if somebody jumped into a book, it could

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alter the plot of that book, even affecting any copies made from that work. If you jump into a mass market paperback, sure you could do some damage, but really, nobody's going to notice the difference unless they read your copy. But what if you found the original manuscript? The holy text, as it were.

Then, you could do a little damage.

An officer by the name of Thursday Next, she's one of those people who has jumped into books before. She's worked as a literary detective, hunting down villains, like Archeron Hades, whose crimes include book theft and murder of literary characters.

But when they got caught together, battling in the original copy of Jane Eyre, well, things got a bit different.

You'd think that her story was something you'd see in an irreverent comedy book, written by the likes of Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett, but, I assure you, it really happened.

I'm not sure if I like the new ending better or not. I guess it's better, as it ends on a happier, if more melodramatic note. If you can find yourself a written account, though, of Ms. Next's adventures with Jane Eyre, I would greatly recommend you read it. Who knows if that will change from somebody jumping into that story and tampering with it.

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SpecOps operative Thursday Next is a Literatec. This generally means determining if a manuscript is a forgery or hoax, though there is the occasional run-in with a Baconian bent on proving that Shakespeare did not pen those plays he is famous for. Then, Thursday is approached by some folks from

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Spec-Ops 5. They want her help chasing Acheron Hades, evil criminal mastermind who has stolen the manuscript to Martin Chuzzlewit, and not out of any love for literature.

If you can put up with the ridiculousness of setting (alternate 1985 where Spec-Ops include branches in Literature, Art Theft, Vampire and Werewolf Disposal, and Chrono-Guard) for about the first sixty pages, and don't mind a strange mix of humor, science fiction, time travel and capital-L Literature, you may find that you really like this book. No, really. Give it sixty pages. If you haven't become interested despite herself and find yourself looking for the next brief in-joke that you get because yes, I did read that book!, then this is probably not the series for you. But if you find yourself flipping pages fast, reading quickly, and chuckling at the references to high-brow and not-so-high-brow books, jokes, and well, just about everything, you may find yourself a new series to get immersed in.

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If, like me, you like books that celebrate books, words, language, other worlds - this is for you.

Admittely, Jasper Fforde's book isn't easy to get into at first; his alternate 1985 is a bit complex to take in all in one go. It is, however, definitely worth the effort.

If you let this book grab you,

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you'll get to travel in time, in books, confront a villain you'll love to hate, fall in love with all that that entails, and so much more.

Fforde's erudition borders on the insane. He's read so much you can't possibly hope to get every single quote, reference, pun etc. - but if you're mildly well-read (and don't mind keeping a notebook to hand to jot down titles to check out), you will find yourself giggling inanely at the jokes you do get. Fforde's chummy "nudge nudge, wink wink, aren't we clever, Mr. Reader" attitude is so in your face, so unashamed, so obviously the attitude of someone who loves his subject and is having the time of his life writing this, that you can't help but find him witty and charming.

Maybe not histerical; though I do believe that (as some reviewer had it) "Douglas Adams would be proud", this is not one where you're bent down double and can't breathe from stitches. It will, on the other hand, make you smirk, snort, and (dare I say it again?) giggle.

A book for people with a brain who want to let their brain hang loose and go sideways for a day; a book that may be difficult to get into but, when you do, is unputdownable.

A note on Thursday Next: a shower of slaps on the back to Jasper who, though a man, has somehow managed to write a believable heroine. Most female writers fail at that it's so difficult, yet here's a woman who's brave and clever yet sometimes messes up; a woman who strives to juggle career and (a very complicated!) family life; one who's got the guts and determination to save the world yet can be impulsive and silly and... in one word, very human. A hugely positive role-model i.e. not an unattainable one.

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The Eyre Affair is a science fiction novel set in an alternative reality and follows literary detective Thursday next as she tracks the unstable and unpredictable Acheron Hades who is wreaking havoc in both reality and literature alike. Meanwhile, Next struggles with personal emotions and conflicts

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associated with the Orwellian Crimean War which has been raging for over a century, and ha had disastrous consequences for Thursday's personal and moral sensibilities.

I was challenged to read The Eyre Affair by fellow LibraryThing user inkspot (Lauren) on the basis that I do not read a great deal of science fiction on my own, and likewise avoid literature that attempt to rewrite or borrow plots from classic literature. So from the very first I must say that I know next to nothing about the author, Jasper Fforde, the series that apparently comes from this novel, nor the genre as a whole.

As a cold reader I found it very difficult to become involved in the novel. The first several chapters attempt to introduce a very wide range of plots and ideas without adequately associating them, leaving me confused as to what is actually pertinent in the novel and what is more likely to turn out to be "filler" (of which it seems there is a great deal). The setting itself gave me pause, as the author at once creates a world drenched in literature (including automated Shakespeare characters on the streets and whole government departments dedicated to hunting down plagiarizers and false editions of classic works, for example), and seems to show a great deal of disdain for literary enthusiasts (as exemplified by the Milton convention, for example, or the trend in name-changing).

Likewise, while the literary material offers Fforde a wide range of possibilities in terms of building his own characters, much of the material he focuses on seems extraneous to the text and takes away from the narrative flow built around Thursday and her current tasks. The attention given to the authorship of Shakespeare's plays, for example, provides nothing more than a superfluous distraction for the reader; while the Baconists made me chuckle, the weak narrative thread focusing on a rather large literary issue seemed to just add another level of chaos to an already twisted narrative.

I also found myself getting caught up in little details that just didn't seem to make sense. For example, Bowden's insistence that he had "no idea" that a Dickens character was so popular, and her assertion of the same regarding Jane Eyre. In a world where literature confronts you on the streets, people change their names to those of authors, and others go door-to-door like Jehovah's Witnesses to convince the public of the true authorship of Shakespeare, how could Jane Eyre not be popular?

From my perspective, the novel didn't really come together until approximately 75-80% through, when several different narrative threads were finally pulled together. These late connections left the ending feeling rushed and uncertain and, while satisfactory, out of joint with the rest of the novel. I do not regret the challenge or reading The Eyre Affair, as it certainly gave me an interesting look at a genre I otherwise avoid, but I will not be seeking out any Fforde in the future.

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Reading this book is like a coffee date with that guy your freshman year of college who discovers you haven't read Foucault and thinks that means anything more intellectually challenging than Hop on Pop must be explained to you slowly and painstakingly; that by doing this slow mansplaining he is

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showing you just how adorable and sexy he is; and that the fact that you got into the same college he did can be ignored.

Seriously, Fforde, you think you need to tell me where the line "the time is out of joint" is from? Seriously? And that the way to do this is to have your heroine, who you keep telling us is the most brilliant woman in England, ask the quoter, "Hamlet?" NO, IT'S FROM JUDE THE OBSCURE, FUNNY HOW IT GOT SO FAMOUS.

Okay, authors, new rule: if the quote is from Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, or A Midsummer Night's Dream, provenancing it for your readers is just insulting. Especially if you get said provenance wrong, DAN SIMMONS.

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In an alternate 1985, Thursday Next is a LiteraTec for SpecOps. In a world where time travel is as common as road construction (and just as messy), having a pet dodo is not unusual, and spending an evening at an interactive performance of Richard III is a fun night out, Thursday's job is to keep

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the world of literature of safe. But when a device that thins the border between fiction and reality falls into dastardly hands Thursday's life gets even more complicated as she strives to keep major literary characters from meeting a very literal axe.

Fforde's novel is an absolute delight. Easily straddling the border between science fiction and fantasy, his novel truly a love letter to literature and language. Moving easily from punny names and apostrophe jokes to passages that reflect on what major literary works might be like if things were just a bit different, the novel is entertaining from start to finish. Definitely more fun for those familiar with the works mentioned but definitely accessible to anyone who's ever been lost in the pages of a book.

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The Eyre Affair is really a book for readers. It is set in an alternate universe where everyone knows and loves literature - the Shakespeare authorship question gets elevated to practically a religion, Richard III gets performed a la Rocky Horror, and there's an entire law enforcement agency

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concerned with "crimes of literature." This is where agent Thursday Next works, and it's a fairly routine job - tracking down forgeries and so on - until Acheron Hades shows up. Hades is an ex-professor of Thursday's, turned villain for villainy's own sake. And in an act of perfect malice, he begins disrupting literature; first by murdering a minor character out of Martin Chuzzlewit, then by kidnapping Jane Eyre right out of her eponymous novel.

But I think I cared for the universe and the flourishes of the book more than the actual plot. I could read about the tensions between Baconians and Marlovians (re: Shakespeare authorship) all day long, but some aspects of the book had some problems. The pacing was strange - the kidnapping of Jane Eyre, alluded to in the title and featured in the synopsis, doesn't even happen until three-quarters of the way through the book, and sometimes the narrative takes meandering trips down tangents with no reason and no payoff. And Thursday, ostensibly an independent kickass heroine solving crimes, spends too much time lamenting love lost, and how now she's too old and too unmarried. She just seemed like a weaker character out of some other book in those sections, and it felt like an insult to the reader.

I don't mean to criticize too much; this was a really fun book and very original. The book is packed with allusions to the canon of classic literature, that will get a smile of recognition from good readers. It's not literature, but it is book candy and it has its merits.

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Surreal.

Exceptionally funny, bizzarely odd. The Eyre Affair is a stunning debut novel set in an alternate history Swindon in 1985, So many things are different - dodo's exist, the Crimean war continues, and people like to read. Books are special. There is public outcry when a character from

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Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit is found to be missing. Thursday Next is a literery detective and soon finds that the master fiend Archeon Hades is behind the disapearance. In this alternate history many things also remain the same - Multinational corporations, called Goliath are the force behind most government actions.

The writing is light and easy, the action, puns and bad jokes come quick and continually. The social commentry and background workd are deftly introduced without tedious exposition, and while many of the characters are a bit stiff, Thursday is well described. Keep a carefull eye on all the names and places that are mentioned - many contain very well hidden references to the outside worls, JF's website has the ful breakdown, and I'm sure you'll be suprised at how many you've missed.

Excellant fun, brightens up any day. Read them all.

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Where to start....

I used to daydream about being able to 'enter' whatever novel I was reding at the time and insert myself into the story or at least interact with the characters. I thought it was the coolest thing when Fforde moved forward with this and The Eyre Affair was born.

This alternate

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reality is so much fun in an almost zany way - I am reminded of Douglas Adams a bit.

From a review: Imagine this. Great Britain in 1985 is close to being a police state. The Crimean War has dragged on for more than 130 years and Wales is self-governing. The only recognizable thing about this England is her citizens' enduring love of literature. And the Third Most Wanted criminal, Acheron Hades, is stealing characters from England's cherished literary heritage and holding them for ransom.

Bibliophiles will be enchanted, but not surprised, to learn that stealing a character from a book only changes that one book, but Hades has escalated his thievery. He has begun attacking the original manuscripts, thus changing all copies in print and enraging the reading public. That's why Special Operations Network has a Literary Division, and it is why one of its operatives, Thursday Next, is on the case.

Thursday is utterly delightful. She is vulnerable, smart, and, above all, literate. She has been trying to trace Hades ever since he stole Mr. Quaverley from the original manuscript of Martin Chuzzlewit and killed him. You will only remember Mr. Quaverley if you read Martin Chuzzlewit prior to 1985. But now Hades has set his sights on one of the plums of literature, Jane Eyre, and he must be stopped.

For a first time writer I think Fforde exceeded all my expectations. This novel is fun.

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Title: The Eyre Affair
Author: Jasper Fforde
Genre: Mystery, Science Fiction, Literature, Time Travel, Fantasy
# of pages: 384
Start date:
End date:
Borrowed/bought: Bought
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: A

Description of the book: Thursday Next is a Literatec in an alternate English

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reality. It is Thursday's responsibility to keep all the great works of literature safe from harm. When Acheron Hades, a highly sought after criminal, decides to steal valuable pieces of literature- it is up to Thursday to stop him.
Review: Fforde has a wonderful blend of british humor and love for classic literature that just makes you want to pick up Charles Dickens or Charlotte Bronte. I most enjoyed Thursday's Uncle and his crazy inventions- I think he would make a fun spin off character! The storyline was quick and interesting and kept my interest through the whole book. There were tidbits in the book about how time travel works and theory behind it (in a science fictiony fashion) that was interesting. I think Fforde's style reminded me much of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I think Fforde has a wonderful gem here and I'm excited to read the rest of the series.

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I'm kind of ambivalent about The Eyre Affair, to be honest. I liked it just fine and it was an enjoyable read, but I didn't particularly love it or anything. I guess you could say that I'm still confused about it? There were a lot of questions I had that it didn't answer, and it bugged me that even

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though Thursday's dad does what he does, no one seems to suggest that Acheron can do the same thing. Though I guess part of the problem there is that there's never really an explanation for how her dad does what he does. Maybe there is later in the series? Except that I love time travel stories, and at least Fford got the time travel stuff right in my book (I'm so picky about how it's done!).


There were a lot of things that I really did like, mostly the world-building stuff like the Crimean war or Peoples' Republic of Wales or the dodos, but overall, the story just didn't do a whole lot for me. I don't know if I was expecting more than there was, or what, but the story itself didn't totally excite me, like maybe too much time was spent building the universe and making it quirky and interesting, and the real pay-off for that is in the sequels. Or maybe I was just let down by the very small profile that time travel held in the plot, after getting introduced to it so early in the story. I don't regret reading the book, because I did enjoy the experience, and I don't regret paying the $14 cover price, because I think I would enjoy reading it again in the future, but I probably would have been better off borrowing it, and I'm definitely not going to seek out the sequels specifically or buy them at the cover price if I come across any.


Also, and this is a really minor quibble, but the way Fford had the characters talk about Jane Eyre kinda bugged me. I know that it's an alternate history novel, so it's entirely possible that within the Thursday Next world Jane Eyre is completely different, but in the course of my English Lit BA, I've had to read it several times, and I had trouble suspending my disbelief about the "original" ending, and it really stuck out to me when the "real" ending showed up that so many of the reasons for why the book has to end the way it does didn't even come up. It was mentioned a few times that the "original" ending didn't match the way the first part of the book went, but then nothing about how the "real" one does? And then the whole plot about Thursday and Acheron entering the novel felt off to me, because Jane Eyre's story takes place in the literary past - if you pay attention to the narrator's voice, Jane is writing the narrative from a distant future, so it seemed to me that Thursday and Acheron shouldn't be going to Thornfield Hall of the past when they enter the novel, but rather should be showing up at future!Jane's shoulder as she sits at a desk writing. But though I'm bothered by that some, it didn't have much play in my enjoyment of The Eyre Affair, at least not consciously - it's more of a fridge logic thing.

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I was hesitant about this book, but I really enjoyed it! I'm not really into funny books...I think that keeps me from picking up books like these. I would flip through the pages and see that it takes place in an alternate universe of England (one where the Crimean War has gone on for 130 years,

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people have pet Dodos, Wales is self-governing, time-travel exists, and people participate in productions of Richard the Third as if it was The Rocky Horror Picture Show) and there are characters named Thursday Next, Jack Schitt, and Runcible Spoon...and I'd put it down. No need to waste my time with this silliness.

No, I really enjoyed it. I don't think I read enough books for fun. I love to read, but I always expect to get something...educational out of it. This was just fun!

Jasper Fforde created a world that was just different enough from the 'real London' that I didn't need to suspend disbelief to read it. I liked the tone of the book: Fforde wrote about the horrors of war with a lilting causalness, he wrote about a London obsessed with writers (kids trade writer cards instead of baseball cards, there are thousands of people who have changed their name to John Milton) without weighing the tone down with heavy-handed literary references and inside jokes. There were jokes I laughed at, jokes I sort of got, and I KNOW that a lot passed me by. But I don't care. It was a good read. If I want another light comedy with literary overtones and pet Dodos, I'll pick up another one of this series.

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I liked this and I'm glad I read this--but I expected to love it, and I didn't and won't be reading more of Fforde. The book has a fantastic core premise: fictional characters can drop into the real world and intervene in lives; real people can drop into works of fiction and refashion the story.

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The heroine, Thursday Next, is a member of Special Operations 27--"LiteraTec" which usually deals with crimes such as forgery, copyright infringement, and bad acting. (An actor can be arrested for an unapproved rendition of Shakespeare.) In the Eyre Affair she's on the heels of a criminal mastermind who is murdering and kidnapping fictional characters--including the beloved Jane Eyre.

This isn't the only narrative strand--the novel is set in an alternate universe where a lot of the history we know happened differently. (Time travel is a fact in this world and the timeline it seems continually tweaked by operatives.) In this novel the Crimean War has been going on for 131 years--Thursday is a veteran of that war and it pops up and intertwines in the plot in a clever way. There's also text-eating bookworms, extinct creatures brought back to life to be made into pets--like Thursday's dodo--productions of Richard III that have run for 15 years with the audience shouting out lines as if it were The Rocky Horror Picture Show and people debate questions of literary text and authorship with all the fervor of religious disputes.

The book should be a bibliophile's dream with a wealth of literary allusion and word play: a blurb from The Wall Street Journal on the cover calls it a blend of "Monty Python, Harry Potter, Stephen Hawkings and Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Maybe that's the problem for me. It's too manic--too many disparate elements thrown at me even if a great deal of the threads come together at the end. Maybe it's just that I can never quite disappear into this world. Harry Potter is easier. Believe that you can pass through a barrier at Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station into a world of witches and wizards and you're pretty OK from there. People still act like people. But a world where literature is cared about with such zeal is harder for me to credit.

I also don't feel the book is well-written. Almost all of The Eyre Affair is written in first person, but there are patches of third person and third-person like narration and it's not transitioned well. I remember as particularly clunky a scene where Thursday talks about her encounter with her nemesis, Hades Archeron, and other parts of the narrative seem clumsy as well.

It's an imaginative story, well-plotted, and I liked Thursday Next, the main narrator of the story. Yet somehow, I found too much of this novel a chore to read to recommend enthusiastically nor do I want to follow more of Thursday's adventures.

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The first of the Thursday Next books, it's a fantastic introduction to an alternate England of the 1980's, where people are really into books. Especially recommended for those who have already immersed themselves in English literature, as you'll really "get it."

What happens when an evil corporation changes the ending of Jane Eyre and the threads holding modern society threaten to unravel? Who're you gonna call? The literary detectives, of course!

The Eyre Affair is a fun romp through literature and Fforde's alternate-history England, where the Crimean War

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rages in 1985 and an entire branch of the police force is dedicated to fighting literary crime. It's basically every book-lover's fantasy come true, and the tongue-in-cheek allusions to Dickens, Shakespeare, and sentient dodos are the icing on the cake.

The entire Thursday Next series is good, but this one, the first, is my favorite.

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This is a fun "book-about-books", espcially if you're well aquainted with the British masters such as Shakespeare, Dickens, Wordsworth and, well, the Bronte sisters. The premise of people being able to interact with characters from literature is facinating. The zany alternate universe where

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time-travelling occurs and the Crimean war still rages is a bit over the top; however, it is literary science fiction after all.
My two favorite aspects of the book were the delightfully munching bookworms that can alter literature and the notion of French Revisionists always trying to undermine British historical triumphs.
The protagonist, Thursday Next, is likable enough. She is a Special Operative in literary detection and fights against the delicious villain Acheron Hades, whose idea of power is to wreck havoc in famous literature.
Of course, the book is quite silly with minimal character depth and run-of-the-mill writing; however, the imagination of it all makes it all worth it. It is simply a fun read!

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Imagine a world where history is being mucked up by time-travelers and literature (of utmost importance in this world) can be altered with the kidnapping of main characters.

Jasper Fforde has created such an interesting alternative world, it is no wonder that so many people have been drawn into

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this series.

I had a few issues with the book. The first was, the novel mostly reads as a first person, but it jumps to the activities of others on occasion, which is a bit disconcerting. If the goal is to let the reader know the activities and thoughts of the antagonist and side characters, then it's best to tell the story in the omnipresent narrator's voice. (Maybe it was criticisms such as this that inspired Lost In A Good Book.{s})

The other issue may be more of an issue that arises because I have read some of the other later novels before reading this one. I felt too much time was used to describe this alternate universe and what makes it tick. I didn't feel that some of the background information was needed to keep this particular storyline moving forward. Instead, it seemed to bog it down a little.

Other than those issues, I thoroughly enjoyed this look at the alternative universe. Fforde's characters are amusing, sometimes vulnerable, and always entertaining. I think every struggling author hopes their first novel will be as entertaining and well-received as this has been.

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The Eyre Affair's premise had great potential: a mystery set in England c. 1985, involving time travel and a society obsessed with literature. The protagonist, Thursday Next, is a Special Operative in a government agency devoted to "literary detection." Thursday has had a long, successful career as

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a Special Operative, and hopes to move up in the service. She's unmarried, much to her parents' disappointment. But it's not for lack of opportunity; she still harbors feelings for an old flame, Landen Parke-Laine.

When Thursday is called out on a special assignment that results in fatalities, she accepts a post in Swindon, her hometown, to get away from the pressure and visibility of London. But of course she can't really escape, and the "baddies" turn up in Swindon. Corporations battle with the government for control, people disappear, Thursday's father shows up occasionally to report on his time travels, and elaborate contraptions often come into play.

The characters have "clever" names: Thursday Next, Millon de Floss, Jack Schitt, and so on. Each short chapter tossed out new characters, new situations, and new stunts. But there was also a fair amount of violence. Now I'm not the sort who prefers to read about kittens in baskets, but the violence juxtaposed with wordplay and cleverness just didn't work for me. And I just got tired of the cleverness.

On top of all this, the mystery was slow to develop. The "blurb" on my edition states, "When Jane Eyre is plucked from the pages of Brontë's novel, Thursday must track down the villain and enter the novel herself to avert a heinous act of literary homicide." After 175 pages, this storyline had yet to develop, and I was no longer willing to wait for it.

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In an alternate version of England where dodos are no longer extinct and Neanderthals have been brought back to life, Thursday Next works for a literary detective agency, breaking up forgery rings and protecting original copies of literary works. When the original copy of Jane Eyre disappears from

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a secure glass case in the Bronte family home with no trace of tampering, Thursday is brought in to track it down. What follows is a string of events that get progressively weirder as she learns a former professor has gone bad and is killing off fictional characters to ruin great works, and the only way to stop him is to jump into the books herself.

This is a British literary geek's dream. The humor builds as things get more and more ridiculous. Thursday Next is a strong and smart protagonist in an insane world. The way Fforde twists classic literary narratives to suit his story (only to twist them back in the end) is ingenious and allows for clever plot twists. Literary characters are real living people... except now quite. I love this book and every time I read it, I'm immersed all over again.

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Fun alternate universe book where classic books and their authors have the status of rock stars and actors in our world. Time travel, villains, lost loves and heroes make for a wonderful story. I'm looking forward to reading more in the series.

A book that book lovers love to read! Each recognized literary reference gives the reader a certain self-satisfaction; I often smiled in remembrance of books I've read and characters I've met along the way.

The world in which the book is set was at first slightly muddled for me, but my questions

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about its "rules" were soon answered. Later, once becoming comfortable in the book, I couldn't remember what had been confusing. I found the time time travel and LiteraTecs to be particularly enjoyable aspects of the book.

Acheron Hades is the ultimate bad guy. His vileness makes him easy to hate but his cunning earns him a measure of respect. I loved every scene that featured him.

It was an exciting, fast-paced book with memorable characters that make the reader look forward to the sequel.

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This book was very unlike any other book I have read as I don't usually read a lot of fantasy literature. Set in an alternate world version of England in 1985, where dodos have been resequenced and time travel is not only possible but has a whole Special Operatives unit devoted to it, this story is

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the first-person narrative of Thursday Next, literary detective. In this alternate reality, everyone is obsessed with fine literature and raging debates over who really penned Shakespeare's works is the topic of everyday conversation. When a manuscript of Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit is stolen, Thursday's enemy, Acheron Hades (the third most-wanted criminal in the world) is the prime suspect. Hades is intent on physically entering the worlds of famous works of literature and disposing of characters at whim, thus rewriting literary history. When Hades gets his hands on a manuscript of Jane Eyre as well, Thursday must stop him before he kills off Jane Eyre, ending the novel completely. The Eyre Affair contains enough suspense to keep you hooked and on the edge of your seat, waiting to see what will happen next. What I really enjoyed is that unlike most page-turners, this book was also well written, with a great respect for works of literature, so I didn't feel like I was losing brain cells while reading it. I love the idea of authors attaining celebrity status and works of literature being so highly regarded by the general public. I'm looking forward to the rest of the Thursday Next series.

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