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The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next #1)

3.92 of 5 stars 3.92 · rating details · 55,013 ratings · 5,359 reviews

Welcome to a surreal version of Great Britain, circa 1985, where time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. England is a virtual police state where an aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wordsworth poem, militant Baconians heckle performances of Hamlet, and forging Byronic verse is a...more

Paperback, 374 pages

Published February 25th 2003 by Penguin Books (first published July 19th 2001)

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Nov 20, 2010 Manny rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone who's read Jane Eyre

Recommended to Manny by: oriana, notgettingenough and others too numerous to mention

Shelves: science-fiction, well-i-think-its-funny, parody-homage, story-review, mentions-twilight, the-goodreads-experience

This is so much fun. I want to play too! And, as it happens, I have a surprisingly good opening. So, with the usual perfunctory apologies, may I present

The Meyre Affair: a Thursday Next story

The hardest part is telling them they're fictional. After that, the rest is usually easy.

- Thursday Next, A Life in SpecOps

I could start this story at any number of points, but I will choose the moment when I knocked on Manny Rayner's front door. Nothing happened, so I knocked again. He opened it.

There was...more

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Oct 27, 2012 Cassy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Cassy by: Flannery

Shelves: physical-own, 2012, fiction-dsytopian-and-apocalyptic, region-europe, region-elsewhere, theme-humor, theme-books-and-writing, event-missed-author

Sometimes I fear that I am becoming a jaded reader. I will catch myself muttering in the middle of a long series of yawns, “Haven’t I read this plot/character/technique before?” Or when the author describes their setting, I will lazily flip through my mental inventory of backdrops until, sure enough, I find an old one that it is a good enough fit to reuse.

Then Fforde comes along and throws the literary equivalent of a bucket of Arctic cold water in my face.

I found myself having to actually wor...more

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Feb 25, 2013 Cecily rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: humour, overrated, sci-fi-or-futuristic, miscellaneous-fiction

I didn't enjoy this. It tries too hard to be clever and to cover many different genres (humour, sci fi, horror, detective, literary and more) whilst also being annoyingly silly. After 100 pages I ditched it - something I rarely do.

Thursday Next is a woman who is a literary detective in one of several alternative realities round about now. In hers, the Crimean War is still going. Somehow, in her society, manuscripts are stolen and guns are involved; she also manages to get into books and meet cha...more

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Sep 25, 2007 piraterie rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: read2007

I had the same feeling after reading this as I had after reading The Looking Glass Wars. Fabulous idea, terrible execution. I was going to give it one more star than I gave that because it's not quite as badly written. And I liked the idea of door-to-door Baconians and Rocky Horrorized Richard III. But I changed my mind because the more I think about it, the more I didn't like it.

It was so smug and cutesy and in need of better editing. And it would have been better served by not being written in...more

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Mar 15, 2008 Lisa Vegan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: those who enjoy the following: humor, mysteries, sci-fi, fantasy, literature & language

Shelves: mystery, time-travel, fiction, reviewed, novel, speculative-fiction, books-about-books, gr-groups-buddies, favorites, altta, humor

This is a thoroughly delightful and brilliant book. I chuckled and chortled all the way through this book; it’s hilarious. There are many interesting characters and I am eager to read the rest of this series. I’m not sure that the successive books will also get 5 stars from me: the clever premise might get a tad old; I’ll have to see. This unusual story is a bit difficult to define. It fits multiple genres: sci-fi, mystery, humor, fantasy, and fiction. And the author manages to create an entire...more

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Oct 20, 2007 Jason Pettus rated it 4 of 5 stars

(The much longer full review can be found at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of the literary genre known as "speculative" fiction; for those not familiar with it, the genre primarily concerns itself with historical questions of "what if?" What if the South had won the Civil War, for example, or the Nazis World War II? What if computers, robots and nuclear weapons had been invented in the 1840s instead of the 1940s? It is a gr...more (The much longer full review can be found at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of the literary genre known as "speculative" fiction; for those not familiar with it, the genre primarily concerns itself with historical questions of "what if?" What if the South had won the Civil War, for example, or the Nazis World War II? What if computers, robots and nuclear weapons had been invented in the 1840s instead of the 1940s? It is a great genre for those intrigued by the issues raised in science-fiction, but who do not care for the more hard-edged fetishes of that particular genre (the spaceships, the lasers, the aliens); because ultimately speculative fiction relies a lot more on real history and sociology for its ultimate entertainment value than most traditional sci-fi, making it a good place to regularly find big crossover hits.

One such hit, for example, has turned out to be the delightful 2002 speculative novel The Eyre Affair, by the Douglas-Adamsesque Jasper Fforde; it has in fact inspired an entire series of popular novels since then set in the same speculative universe, collectively known as the "Thursday Next" series because of its main protagonist. The latest, First Among Sequels, just came out this summer; I've heard a lot of great things about all the books in the series, so thought I'd start at the beginning and finally experience them for myself. And man, what a speculative world this turns out to be -- it is an entire alternate Earth that Fforde creates, in fact, one much like ours in many ways but with there also being telling differences. Like...

--In Fforde's world, Russia never had a Soviet revolution, and is still run by the Tsarist royal family;

--As a result, England and Russia have been fighting the Crimean War for 131 years now, the entire thing turning into a Vietnam-like unwinnable mess that neither side can politically walk away from anymore;

--As a result of that, England in Fforde's world never reaches Empire status, with among the results being a fiercely independent and antagonistic Republic of Wales, as well as a virtual police state in England itself, put in place by an all-consuming private corporation called Goliath;

--It is in some respects a book nerd's dream world, a world where obscure Victorian authors are considered rock stars, and the argument over whether Shakespeare really existed or not one that spills over into street gangs and organized religions;

--And it is also a world where several topics we consider "supernatural" are to them very real and even blase -- a world that has perfected cloning, a world where time travel is an accepted reality (if not a highly controlled activity), with a series of secret government divisions in charge of regulating and policing the various industries involved.

We as the readers, then...(less)

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Jun 12, 2008 Danielle rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: did-not-finish

I've been storing up some venom for this review, so be prepared.
First of all, I want to unleash my fury on whoever in the Rory Gilmore Book Club suggested this book as February's pick. To go from such a brilliant read as Jane Eyre to this was frustrating to say the least. It highlighted all the amateurish contrivances of Fforde's writing. I rolled my eyes so many times in the first four chapters, that I nearly gave myself a headache. And no, I'm sure it doesn't get better after that, that's jus...more I've been storing up some venom for this review, so be prepared.
First of all, I want to unleash my fury on whoever in the Rory Gilmore Book Club suggested this book as February's pick. To go from such a brilliant read as Jane Eyre to this was frustrating to say the least. It highlighted all the amateurish contrivances of Fforde's writing. I rolled my eyes so many times in the first four chapters, that I nearly gave myself a headache. And no, I'm sure it doesn't get better after that, that's just where I officially banished the book from my sight.
Here are my major problems with the part I read.
1. Okay, you're enterting this alternate reality world where many things are similar but different from what we know. As Fforde might assume that not all of his readers would be British, or familiar with UK current events/history, perhaps he could have given us a little more to go on, so that the reader could appreciate the weirdness of this other world, without going, "Umm...from the way that's said, I'm assuming that's not how it happened in real life."
2. Thursday Next. Seriously? Thursday Next. That just screams: "I'm writing a strong yet lovably flawed female gumshoe destined to drag you through book after book of literary-themed exploits." Her character was so stereotypical I could have written it with my eyes closed.
3. The time-travelling father.
4. If a book is written in first-person, and you really, REALLY want us to know what the character looks like, it is textbook cliche to have her pull out a mirror and describe what she sees. Puh-lease.
5. Finally, the clincher at the end of chapter four (I think. I wasn't paying all THAT much attention), but the straw that made me put away the book for good is that Fforde CLEVERLY (I felt like the whole of the book was trying just a little too hard to be clever) had Thursday narrate what had happened in her confrontation with her nemesis by putting her in an interrogation setting, where she has to tell the police investigators (and us, conveniently) what happened prior to her month-long coma. Okay, that in and of itself is not so bad, what kills me is when the only difference between what she says into the tape recorder and what she says in her narration of any other part of the book is the double quotation marks. Seriously, no one answers an investigator's question of, "So what happened next," by saying, "'What do you think you're doing?' I said. 'It's time for me to make my exit,' he answered with a smile." People write books like that. They don't talk like that. It was ridiculous.
Anyway, I guess I wouldn't be so annoyed with this book, except that it's supposed to be "delightful" for bibliophiles because it assumes all this familiarity with the classics, yet anyone who had read said classics would inevitably chafe under the obvious inferiority of this freshman attempt.(less)

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Feb 02, 2008 Krista rated it 3 of 5 stars

(Violence alert: The body count is high, plus some grossness factor.)
It’s a spy thriller. No, wait — it’s science fiction. No, wait — it’s literary criticism. No, wait — it’s art history. No, wait — it’s historical-political commentary. No, wait — it’s romantic comedy. No, wait — it’s an epic war drama. No, wait — it’s — oh, look — Japanese tourists!

While I applaud the spirit of many of the directions this novel takes, you kind of have to wonder if the author could have focused just a tad bit mo...more (Violence alert: The body count is high, plus some grossness factor.)
It’s a spy thriller. No, wait — it’s science fiction. No, wait — it’s literary criticism. No, wait — it’s art history. No, wait — it’s historical-political commentary. No, wait — it’s romantic comedy. No, wait — it’s an epic war drama. No, wait — it’s — oh, look — Japanese tourists!

While I applaud the spirit of many of the directions this novel takes, you kind of have to wonder if the author could have focused just a tad bit more...

So here’s the interesting aspect of this novel: Fforde envisions an alternate reality in which wars are (literally) waged over ideas, a fantasy in which literature and art are at the center of people’s daily concerns. In one incidental moment, the main character turns on the TV in her hotel room; a news reporter is reporting on riots that broke out while Neoclassicists were protesting the 10-year anniversary of the legalization of Surrealism.

Eventually (three-quarters of the way through the novel), the main event occurs: an English professor gone bad kidnaps Jane Eyre from page 100-something of the original manuscript, erasing the text of the remaining pages from all copies of the book and causing millions of Jane Eyre fans to come out of the woodwork and hold weepy candlelight vigils.

Our heroine, LiteraTec (literary detective) Thursday Next, must restore Jane to her rightful place in the novel, keep the evil villian away from Miss Eyre, and supervise the plot from inside the book as the book "rewrites" itself. Things go awry, of course, and the original manuscript is compromised — but with felicitous consequences for Miss Eyre, Mr. Rochester, and Jane Eyre fans everywhere.

Of course, the author of a book like this must hope to capitalize on a pre-existing Jane Eyre fan base...but the danger in writing derivative literary fiction is that, while your book may be a perfectly good book in many ways, you are putting your reader in mind of really great literature, next to which your book is doomed to lose by comparison. And as the plot of Jane Eyre droned on from Thursday Next's perspective, I couldn’t help thinking, "I’d rather be reading Jane Eyre."

The final twist in the love story is, I have to admit, cute — but not cute enough for me to recommend the book, at least not to someone exactly like me. However, if a heavy dose of violence doesn’t make you queasy and you can hold on for a roller-coaster ride of genre-bending twists and turns, you might enjoy the cleverness of it.(less)

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Jun 08, 2008 Sfdreams rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone, especially those with a sense of humor

Recommended to Sfdreams by: Lisa Vegan

Shelves: reviewed

I resisted reading this book for quite awhile, but thankfully, my friend Lisa (LisaVegan), kept bugging me about it! I thought that I would not appreciate it as I have never read Jane Eyre. But, Lisa is right, you do not have to know anything about Jane Eyre to understand this book.

I am thankful to Lisa, and to Goodreads, because I probably would have never stumbled upon this delightful book otherwise, as I rarely visit the SF shelves at the library.

I only found one annoyance while reading--"the...more

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May 27, 2011 Monique rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult, bestsellers, fantasy, fiction, series-books, 2011

The cover of my trade paperback copy of this book has this snippet of a review from The Wall Sreet Journal: “Filled with clever wordplay, literary allusion and bibliowit, 'The Eyre Affair' combines elements of Monty Python, Harry Potter, Stephen Hawking and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But its quirky charm is all its own.”

Now Harry Potter and Buffy I am most familiar with, so after reading this book, I must say that I would have to agree. I think I also ought to add that I've never read any author...more

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Apr 20, 2008 Shannon (Giraffe Days) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, mystery-suspense, magical-realism, 2008, crime

It is 1985 and the world isn't quite as we know it. Nor is history the same. There's a lot of odd things going on, otherwordly creatures are real, some people can go back and forth in time, literature is BIG, and the Crimean war has been going on since the 1800s. Thursday Next, a veteran of this war, now works for SpecOps (Special Operations) 27- the Literatec division. She's a kind of literature detective, and when the original manuscript of Martin Chuzzlewit vanishes, she is brought into a muc...more It is 1985 and the world isn't quite as we know it. Nor is history the same. There's a lot of odd things going on, otherwordly creatures are real, some people can go back and forth in time, literature is BIG, and the Crimean war has been going on since the 1800s. Thursday Next, a veteran of this war, now works for SpecOps (Special Operations) 27- the Literatec division. She's a kind of literature detective, and when the original manuscript of Martin Chuzzlewit vanishes, she is brought into a much bigger case involving her old Uni professor, Acheron Hades, now a master-mind criminal.

Hades' plan is fairly simple: using Thursday's uncle's Prose Portal invention, he can kidnap characters from manuscripts and hold them to ransom. Literature being as important as it is in this world, you can bet he can demand millions. When his plan for Chuzzlewit doesn't go quite as planned, he steals the manuscript for Jane Eyre instead.

In this story, the plot of Jane Eyre is a bit different. Namely, she marries her cousin St John and goes to India with him. Or Africa, wherever it was. Everyone agrees it's a disappointing ending, not least of all Rochester himself, whom Thursday has a few run-ins with. It seems popping in and out of books isn't so hard as you might think. I do have to wonder, though, at Thursday's run-down of the plot for her colleague's benefit, because I have to disagree on a few points: firstly, Rochester fell in love with Jane pretty much straight away, he just didn't show it; secondly, he never intended to marry Blanche Inghram, that was just a ploy to get Jane jealous and make her love him back; and maybe it's naive of me, and maybe it's the opposite, but I don't know that there's much proof that Adele was Rochester's "love-child".

Anyway. The plot might seem a little confusing, because there's so much happening at once, but it's not. It's fast-paced and funny, and also highly original. I do have to question the curious use of a first-person omniscient narrator - though in this particular world, anything goes; it's just a bit odd to have scenes related in detail of which Thursday wasn't present for. Also, and this is a bit of a pet peeve of mine, when someone is retelling a situation that includes a conversation, no one says things like "I stammered in reply" and "There was a pause. Acheron smiled." Seriously, this kind of thing is very distracting because it's so utterly implausible and unrealistic.

Also, I don't know how much of literature or anything else you could learn from a book like this, which is at its heart mocking, and full of deviances. I wouldn't take anything for fact. But I loved the joke names, especially the (rather obvious) Jack Schitt - oh loads of fun there! Thursday's uncle, Mycroft Next, the inventor, is a bit like Q from the James Bond movies, but much more vague; anyway, his inventions are quite funny. The side-plot of the Crimean war adds a serious bent to the novel, and is plenty pertinent.

In short, it wasn't quite what I was expecting but I enjoyed it immensely. I loved how the ending of Jane Eyre - one of my favourite books by the way - was changed to the one that we are familiar with sort-of by accident. And I loved the idea of the characters living the life of the story, over and over again, but able to do more or less as they liked when they weren't in the scene. Rochester was wonderful :)(less)

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Jul 24, 2009 Hayes rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Hayes by: Nell-lu

Shelves: bc-bookring, read-in-2009

Stephanie Plum meets Voldemort:

Thursday Next, LiteraTec (with a vanishing sports car, a pet dodo, and a few bouts of time travel), investigates the theft of original manuscripts, of characters in books, of plots even, and meets the arch villain, Acheron Hades.

I almost loved this book, but it was just a little too weird. Lots of fun, good for an amusing weekend, but just a little over the top for me.

This book was sponsored by thelostbook.net, www.bookcrossing.com and TOAD NEWS International

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Nov 01, 2012 Mike (the Paladin) rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

I wanted to like it, it sounded like a good idea, but I didn't.
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Okay, I've tried to read this three times before and could never get into it. My wife liked it and so did several others I know so....got the audio this time and I'll try again.

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I can't say I like this book. As noted before I have tried at least 3 times to read it because some of it's fans are so thrilled with it that I keep having...more I wanted to like it, it sounded like a good idea, but I didn't.
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Okay, I've tried to read this three times before and could never get into it. My wife liked it and so did several others I know so....got the audio this time and I'll try again.

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I can't say I like this book. As noted before I have tried at least 3 times to read it because some of it's fans are so thrilled with it that I keep having it recommended. There are books that are like that for me, books that I just can't fathom someone not liking. But it happens.

As I said I don't really like this book...but I like much of it. I'd describe it as a good idea wrapped in convoluted story telling occasionally pushing simplistic ideas while interweaving a potentially interesting narrative replete with humor that runs the gamut from very funny to groaningly bad.

So....If you can stand the long slow parts where Jasper Fforde indulges his urge to evangelize for his questionable political insight and handle the interludes of interaction that gives us familial relations and the abbreviated romance (and I'm so glad it was abbreviated as an added long involved romance would have finished me and I'd have put the book aside again) as you get through to the plot and characters you might enjoy this book...or like me enjoy part of it.

Of course to be fair many probably REALLY like the very parts of the novel that had me ripping my hair out (and I can't afford to lose any more hair). Some I'm sure will be rolling on the floor laughing at what had me rolling my eyes. So...this one splits the vote for me. Try it yourself. Some of it, the main idea, the approach I find very enjoyable. Some parts I find yawningly and (as noted before) groaningly slow.

Will I try another Thursday Next novel???? I don't know yet. As always I'm pretty backed up on "to read" books but again I have friends who assure me I'll like some of the later ones better! So, I'll probably try at least one (since I finally got through this one).

Maybe some of your reviews will decide me? Anyway try this one yourself...it's really a matter of personal taste....really.
(less)

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Jun 25, 2009 Jon rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Jon by: Alternative World Book Club June 2009

Shelves: fantasy, fiction, mystery, read-in-my-40s

3.4 stars

A wonderful thing happened on the way to The Eyre Affair; I read Jane Eyre. For that alone I will be eternally grateful.

Otherwise, it was an enjoyable but forgettable mystery set in a chaotic vortex of genres spanning paranormal, science fiction, alternate history, and time travel. At one point, it even reminded me of Butcher's Dresden series.

The puns, literary references and alternate history gaffs intrigued me and sparked quick forays of research to confirm or deny my suspicions.

I...more

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Mar 19, 2013 Dolors rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012

Okay, I'm not very much into science fiction and time travel, but when a book is good, I like it whatever the plot (The time traveller's wife, Brave New World, Never let me go, Fahrenheit 451...I loved these ones).
Not the case with this novel, I'm sorry to say that I had to make and effort to finish it, I found myself skipping through the text, something I hadn't done for a long time now.
I read somewhere that this is a silly novel for smart people. Well, I might not be smart enough, but I agree...more

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Apr 11, 2013 Nancy (NE) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: series

I haven't had so much fun in a long time! A bibliophile's ride. England hasn't become an Empire and Russia is still governed by the Tsarists. They've been fighting the Crimean War for 131 years. Their society rules are enforced by many levels of SpecOps. Tuesday Next is the main character, who works for the literary detective division. Her father time travels. Her Uncle invents weird things. Someone is traveling in an out of famous works of literary fiction and poetry, kidnapping characters and...more

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Jan 14, 2008 Martine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: English lit buffs, Terry Pratchett fans

Shelves: british, modern-fiction, humour, science-fiction, postmodern

Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series is an awful lot of fun for English lit geeks who cherish their classics. It is set in an alternate England where people have cloned dodos for pets, croquet is the national sport, time travelling is a regular part of life and literature enjoys the kind of position that beer, football, cricket and TV have today, meaning that the country eats, drinks and breathes literature. It would be a perfect place to live, if it weren't for the fact that (1) it is run by a...more

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Dec 16, 2009 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: in-by-of-england, books-about-books, reviewed, drunk-book-reviews, fantasy-sci-fi, bronte-bronte-bronte

My brother left a copy of The Wasteland when he visited me recently. It's been years since I last read it and it has been haunting me from its perch on top of a pile of books, which were piled on top of books already shelved, on top of an overflowing bookshelf, while I was re-reading The Eyre Affair. I finally gave in (without much strain) and read it again, then I read Eliot's notes, and searched out the German translations, and thought about pulling up that Sappho reference. Then I started thi...more

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Nov 24, 2008 Christina Stind rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008, fiction, series, library

The barriers between reality and fiction are softer than we think; a bit like a frozen lake. Hundreds of people can walk across it, but then one evening a thin spot develops and someone falls through; the hole is frozen over by the following morning." (s. 206)

This is the premise of The Eyre Affair. The main protagonist, Thursday Next, is a litterary agent - she deals with all kinds of crimes having to do with literature, forgery and the like.
She gets involved in the attempt to catch a super vill...more

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Dec 20, 2008 John rated it 4 of 5 stars

My wife and I started listening to The Eyre Affair on our Thanksgiving trip and only recently finished it, but this unique novel proved quite delightful from start to finish. I'll say up front that no small portion of our enjoyment came from Elisabeth Sastre's reading. Jasper Fforde has a good narrative voice, but Sastre just plain has a good voice as the narrator of this tale. I suspect she could read the phone book with a sense of wit and charm behind the words.

I find it hard to give an adeq...more My wife and I started listening to The Eyre Affair on our Thanksgiving trip and only recently finished it, but this unique novel proved quite delightful from start to finish. I'll say up front that no small portion of our enjoyment came from Elisabeth Sastre's reading. Jasper Fforde has a good narrative voice, but Sastre just plain has a good voice as the narrator of this tale. I suspect she could read the phone book with a sense of wit and charm behind the words.

I find it hard to give an adequate description of The Eyre Affair. To say it presents an alternate reality doesn't seem to go far enough. Sure, it's England in 1985, in a world in which the Crimean War has dragged on for 130 years or so, but I would also have to add that this alternate history is laced with a sort of surreal magic. The villain of the novel has superhuman abilities, from speed and strength to a magical ability to compel others to act as he wishes, to change his appearance. Our protagonist, Thursday Next, works for special operations (spec-ops) as a literatech, concerned with literary matters (which, on the whole, are a much bigger deal in this reality, where literature has taken on roughly religious significance, with societies devoted to various authors, literary pilgrimages seemingly commonplace, and proselytizing groups trying to convert others to their belief that, say, Francis Bacon or Christopher Marlowe actually wrote Shakespeare's plays. Thursday's father is a rogue from service in a different branch of spec-ops, the Chronoguard, charged with protecting us from various sorts of disasters of time, including the deliberate sabotage of the past.

Without giving too much away, I'll say that the world Fforde draws is one in which not only is time travel possible, but people can also travel into books and characters can sometimes travel out of books, leading to an act of biblio-terrorism of sorts, in which a character is kidnapped from Charles Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit and murdered. As the title suggests, however, Jane Eyre ultimately becomes central to the plot.

On the whole, it was a wild ride, but one upon which Lauren and I were happy to embark, and we'll probably look for the next book in the series before too long.(less)

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Mar 18, 2012 Carlos rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2009

Sadly, 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 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. Eng...more Sadly, 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 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, OMG!, is that cute or what? The Eyre Affair may be the only dystopic novel I've read in which the Breads 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. There's something a little jarring about seeing a camped up production of Shakespeare held up as an expression of deep love, as if the Thursday Nextiverse (or even Fforde himself) completely misses the point of camp. Does Fforde think people bring cutlery to midnight showings of The Room because they feel Tommy Wiseau is an auteur?

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. Fforde is like a lobotomized Borges, finding ways to dumb down the literature he loves instead of finding new and interesting depths.

So, sorry, just did not enjoy this novel. I have to confess though, if I ever got a hold of one of those devices to travel into literature, 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.(less)

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Jun 18, 2008 Alana rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008_06_june, reviewed

6/18/08

Alright. I'm leaving the five star ranking. I've been waffling back and forth to changing it to four, but really, for the creativity alone, this book deserves notice.

The Eyre Affair is Jasper Fforde's first novel, and what a novel it is. For starters, this is a dream for the average person who calls themselves a book lover... a literary fantasy where the boundary between the world in books and the "real" world is decidedly thinner than we think. For instance, in this novel, Thursday Next...more 6/18/08

Alright. I'm leaving the five star ranking. I've been waffling back and forth to changing it to four, but really, for the creativity alone, this book deserves notice.

The Eyre Affair is Jasper Fforde's first novel, and what a novel it is. For starters, this is a dream for the average person who calls themselves a book lover... a literary fantasy where the boundary between the world in books and the "real" world is decidedly thinner than we think. For instance, in this novel, Thursday Next (our intrepid heroine) fights the forces of evil (archvillain Acheron Hades). Why is he evil? Well, with the use of a prose portal (developed by Thursday's own uncle), Acheron plans on entering the original manuscripts of beloved novels and murdering characters from within, thus removing them from all published versions of those works. That might be the gist of it, but that doesn't even touch on how interesting this world is... and so I've also pasted here whatever was printed on B&N:

The word "unique" is overused and frequently misused. Here, however, is an instance where it truly applies. But to call The Eyre Affair a unique first novel featuring a fearless fictional adventurer barely begins to tell the story. When asked to summarize his creation is a single sentence, Jasper Fforde described it as "a literary detective thriller with romantic overtones, mad-inventor uncles, aunts trapped in Wordsworth poems, global multinationals, scheming evildoers, an excursion inside the novel Jane Eyre, dodos, knight-errant-time-traveling fathers, and the answer to the eternal question: Who really wrote Shakespeare's plays?" Swindon, a traditionally tranquil English town, is the ironic setting for most of these oddball characters and peculiar goings-on; the year is 1985. Fforde spins his wildly imaginative crime caper in language every bit as ingenious as the madcap plot; his devilishly clever turns of phrase take the form of verbal puzzles, anagrams, and literary and cinematic in-jokes.

Long involved in the movie-making business, Fforde gives a starring role to Thursday Next, a captivating sleuth whose respect for literature matches that of her creator. The essence of Thursday's quest is the capture of Acheron Hades, a wily cad whose dastardly crime is murder of characters from the classics.

If that hasn't gotten you hooked, I don't know what to tell you. It's a really fun book to read. I'm going to keep re-reading the sequels now.

6/16/08

The first time I read this book, I was on a plane flying home from my freshman year at college for spring break. Aside from the fact that it was the first bit of reading I had selected for myself in quite a while (and let me tell you -- buying a hardcover book in college when it isn't for a class is a big deal), it was intelligent and creative and I remember looking up repeatedly and wondering why other other passengers on the plane weren't asking me why I was unable to contain my giddiness. "It's this wonderful book," I would have answered, showing them the cover but not relinquishing my hold.

Now I'm a little older and wiser, but while home this weekend and without a new book to read, I opted to re-read this one and I haven't felt disappointed by that decision yet. It may not be as mind-blowingly delightful as when I first discovered it, but I'm still thrilled with Fforde's incredibly original plotline.(less)

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Sep 11, 2008 Sandi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2008, fantasy, funny-stuff

I had heard good things about the Thursday Next series and had picked up a copy of the latest installment on Border's Buy One, Get One Half Off table. After I got it, I learned that you really have to read the preceding novels to understand it. The last two books I read left me really depressed, so I decided to pick up the first of the Thursday Next books, "The Eyre Affair."

This book provided me with the literary escape I needed. It made me laugh out loud with lines like "My name is Schitt. Jac...more

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Feb 24, 2009 Ceridwen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Ceridwen by: Dave Whitaker

Shelves: alternate-history, mystery, sci-fi, books-about-books, rule-britannia

For the first hundred pages or so, I couldn't decide whether I liked this book or not. It's the tone, not that anyone mentions that sort of thing outside the classroom. I kept thinking about some poor translator trying to render this book into Russian or Swahili or something, and what a bugger all time of it she would have. Cheeky Britishisms, silly names, referents to historical events that didn't happen, or certainly didn't happen that way.

By midway, I was having a ball. I mean, the People's...more

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Jul 21, 2011 Michael rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: alternate-history, mystery, humour, fantasy, detective, meta, 2000s

A book set in an alternate reality where a literary detective chases after a criminal into the world of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, sounds like an awesome idea for a book. I love books about books, and adding a detective should have been a recipe for success. Sadly this wasn’t the case for The Eyre Affair, which is book one in the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. While some people like the mix between fantasy and humour, I could never really get into this book. It was a light read with n...more

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Sep 14, 2007 David rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2007, 5q

OK. Jasper and I started off on the wrong footing, when I mistakenly started with "The Well of Lost Plots". A number of people were kind enough to point out that starting in the middle of an established series, particularly one as eccentric as the Thursday Next books, was not really giving it a fair shake.

And they were absolutely right. I bought this book in Dublin on Wednesday and had devoured it by early Friday morning. It was hilarious. A few minor detours that didn't really move things forwa...more

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Oct 15, 2008 Terence rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: sf-fantasy

I've been noticing that many of my GR Friends are reading these delightful books.

I'm not overly familiar with 19th century novelists (of any country) -- this may irrevocably tarnish my reputation in the eyes of some, but I've never read any Austen and have avoided Dickens like Typhoid Mary since Oliver Twist so I'm sure many of the literary references go right over my head -- but Thursday Next and the alternate Earth she inhabits is a marvelous conceit and Fforde is a very good writer.

Even us po...more

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Aug 03, 2009 Ninja Sock Puppet rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Scott Bakula, Dirk Gently

Recommended to Ninja Sock Puppet by: Ceridwen

Shelves: stolen-from-ceridwen

Something odd has happened.

I've known Compelling ever since I moved to Midwestern City. I'd never met anybody with a name like hers before. Compelling Introduction. Whose parents would do that to a kid? She left the city for places like New York and Key West, but she again lives here now with her husband and daughter. I was at a barbecue at her house this weekend and spoke with an old friend of hers I hadn't seen since I first moved to Midwestern City, a tall, dark, mysterious and charming man,...more

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Mar 07, 2013 Helena rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy-sci-fi

The fuel of this book seems to be the question: “wouldn’t it be cool if [someone] said/did/went through [crazy random happenstance]?”
The answer often is, no, no it wouldn’t. What it would be is tiring to see the author trying to fit it retroactively into the narrative.
I found the beginning tremendous; the rest is sadly one long wince. I think that happens when there are interesting ideas in the premise, but then you have to see the author grossly miscast Rochester as, on the whole, a jolly good...more

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Jul 07, 2011 ~Geektastic~ rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, alternate-history, series, owned, tbr-challenge-2011, 2011

Dear Mr. Fforde,

You are a very clever writer, and I’m sure you know it; your plotting, however, leaves something to be desired. I have had some difficulty reconciling the witty, bantering tone of your novel The Eyre Affair with its hardboiled plotline and tendency to shift focus without warning. Also, you should note that just because you inserted exposition into the beginning of each chapter and labeled it as an excerpt from an imaginary biography or memoir does not for one second make it anyth...more Dear Mr. Fforde,

You are a very clever writer, and I’m sure you know it; your plotting, however, leaves something to be desired. I have had some difficulty reconciling the witty, bantering tone of your novel The Eyre Affair with its hardboiled plotline and tendency to shift focus without warning. Also, you should note that just because you inserted exposition into the beginning of each chapter and labeled it as an excerpt from an imaginary biography or memoir does not for one second make it anything other than exposition, and rather dull exposition at that. Please don’t take this the wrong way, because there were a lot of things I liked, even loved, about your book. The idea of an alternate history steeped in literary and artistic tradition so strong that it influences government policy-making and triggers riots is a wonderful concept, and your ability to convey this with a wink and a nod is great. And Thursday Next, your strong-but-conflicted protagonist, is a good foil to the silly Baconian door-to-door pamphleteers and reverse-engineered pet dodos. But that still leaves the problem of plot, which I don’t think was quite as high up on your list of “things to do in my book.” Much of the story was well-paced and enticing, but then we reach the actual “Eyre affair” of the title, nearly four-fifths of the way through the book , and things get problematic, and not just for your spunky heroine. After Thursday’s foray into the novel, which was very original and fun to read, the reader is suddenly thrust into a tangle of loose ends with astoundingly abrupt solutions. Thursday left the man she loves ten years ago? Of course they can get back together on his wedding day with less than a page of dialogue and a sorta-clever-but-really-cheesy plot hook ~~stolen~~ borrowed from Jane Eyre! Thursday needs to escape the Goliath Corporation after she “lost” their leader? Send a car that cleverly deposits her at the closing of another frayed plot string! These things really needed a little more effort, sir. I am willing, out of appreciation for your obvious love of literature, to give the next book in your series a try and hope that it resolves itself in a more coherent fashion

Before closing, I will say that (view spoiler) was a stroke of genius.

Yours Truly,

Moderately Entertained in VA
(less)

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About Jasper Fforde

Jasper Fforde is a novelist living in Wales. He is the son of John Standish Fforde, the 24th Chief Cashier for the Bank of England, whose signature used to appear on sterling banknotes, and is cousin of Desmond Fforde, married with the author Katie Fforde. His early career was spent as a focus puller in the film industry, where he worked on a number of films including Quills, GoldenEye, and Entrap...more

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