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 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. ( )

What a fun little book! I was not sure how much I would like this story since I have not read Jane Eyre, but I loved it (and now I have to read Jane Eyre). The protagonist was smart and the story was imaginative and quick moving. It had everything that I could want; love, books becoming real, and a bit of whimsy. Will definitely check out more books in the Thursday Next series.

Who can resist a smile when there is a character named Jack Sh*t. Although technically it is Jack Schitt...more What a fun little book! I was not sure how much I would like this story since I have not read Jane Eyre, but I loved it (and now I have to read Jane Eyre). The protagonist was smart and the story was imaginative and quick moving. It had everything that I could want; love, books becoming real, and a bit of whimsy. Will definitely check out more books in the Thursday Next series.

Who can resist a smile when there is a character named Jack Sh*t. Although technically it is Jack Schitt. ( )

Thursday Next, Literature Detective, is a combination of Hermione Granger, Bridget Jones, and V.I. Warshawski -- hard to imagine, but there it is.Some of the plot points are a little thin, but it's a quick and enjoyable read. ( )

Jasper Fforde has the most amazing imagination. I think that this book is a little hard to get into, but when you go on to his other books, they are just wonderful. And you have to read this one to set the scene. I highly recommend it. ( )

Once I got used to the alternate reality i started to enjoy this book. I like the literary references and it took me a while to figure out that the Jane Eyre ending was wrong! ( )

Now here is a story for literature buffs. Thursday Next works as a kind of literary detective in a world gone mad for books. Kids trade character cards, author homes are top tourist destinations, and (my personal favorite) some theaters put on a regular performance of Richard III a la Rocky Horror Picture Show, complete with audience participation. That last had me giggling. The story is clever and the characters amusing, but I think I would have gotten a lot more out of it had I read the prerequisite novels. Specifically having read Jane Eyre and Martin Chuzzlewit would have helped immensely, but even just a penchant for 18th century literature (Dickens, Bronte, Austin, et al) would have been a huge advantage. After all, it is for those fans that this story was really written. Though there is a whole series of Thursday Next books, I think my next Fforde book will probably be one of his fairy tale retellings. I already know those stories. ( )

I think I have a new favorite author! This book is brilliant. Funny, exciting, fast-paced, clever, original... The alternate history in which the book is set is brilliant - it's as if the world were designed for/by English majors. Parts of the book are laugh-out-loud funny. I loved every page. ( )

Chockful of funny literary references. Tough special operations officer Thursday Next fights an evil master criminal to protect the novel Jane Eyre.

terrifically fun! ( )

I have owned Jasper Fforde’s The Eyre Affair for hmm at least three years. I bought and then decided that I should probably read Jane Eyre first. But then I had to get a copy of Jane Eyre. And then I read it. And then I hated the ending of Jane Eyre (yes, I know, you are horrified by that confession). And then I just wasn’t in the mood to read The Eyre Affair even though it was supposedly really, really good.

So, it sat on my shelf and got dusty until I packed it to move to Montreal. Then it sat on my shelf and got dusty until I packed it to move to Ottawa. And then it sat for another year. A week or so ago two people, one right after the other, proclaimed their love of Fforde to me and well, I just had to read it. It helped that I have no library books out at the time. My poor personal collection gets much neglected when spiffy library books show up in the house with these things called “due dates.”

Click here to read the rest... ( )

I was really looking forward to this - the reviews everywhere are fantastic and it sounded right up my street. The trouble with great expectations is that they are hard to live up to. If I had just picked up this book at the airport, I'm sure I'd have liked it moe than starting it anticipating brilliance.

As it is, I enjoyed it. I thought it was pretty clever. It made me smile here and there but I never laughed out loud. The ideas didn't blow me away as much as other reviewers. Where many hailed the book's originality, I saw a bit of a rehash of sci-fi tropes - for example I remember reading precisely the same account of who really wrote Shakespeare's plays in the 2000 AD comic about 25 years ago. ( )

I loved the premise of the book: a thief entering works of literature and kidnapping the characters. However, the majority of the book was slow and long-winded, and there were very few parts where the main characters romped through the great works of literature. It took forever to get to the interesting parts, and by that time I was so annoyed that I couldn't even truly enjoy them. Overall, I think it was a great idea that was poorly executed. I have a few other Fforde books on my TBR shelf, but I am hesitant to pick any of them up after this disappointing read. ( )

Witty, fast paced ... and so imaginative! I wasn't expecting to like it because of all the hype, but I am now hooked on what Thursday Next will be up to next ... ( )

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, 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. ( )

Thursday Next is a book detective, investigating literary crimes, which are quite plentiful in this alternate world. The story is loaded with creative ideas (maybe to it's detriment) but features cloned Dodos, airships, plasma rifles, time machines and a theater that only plays Richard III, solely acted by audience participants. A nice blend of mystery & fantasy, with the passion of books, as a central theme. If you looking for something a bit lighter and completely different, this might be the ticket. ( )

This was really fun – an alternate history literary police procedural in which the world is generally enthralled with literature. What more can you ask for really? I don’t usually go in for mysteries, but I really enjoyed this. High English literature references abound. The dialog is snappy and silly. The characters are not extremely well formed, but enough to run you through a quick book. I can see reading the rest in this, Thursday Next, series when in need of a lighthearted, fun read. ( )

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 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. ( )

Hmm... this book was fun. Not the typical book I normally read but the premise intrigued me.

I did not like the silly names, circumstances or corney plays on words. What I did like was the creative play of reality. The beginning made me wonder why I was reading it, the middle kept me just interested enough (with periodic smirks and laughs) and the end ... the end made the book. I wish that there was more of this in the book (spoiler alert.....)

The entry into the story itself was wonderful. It was clever, fun and pulse quickening. It made me want to read Jane Eyre (yes I have not read it but I own it!!). This was what brought the book out of mediocrity for me. Good light summer read when you want to take your mind off of the day to day. ( )

A really fun read. Thursday Next is the kind of woman I would like to be friends with...and join in on her adventures. She is a little Bridget Jones meets secret agent. And I love the idea of a world where it is frowned upon to NOT be a reader. I am excited this is a series and am looking forward to reading her next adventure. ( )

The Eyre Affair, first in author Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next literary detective series, is part science fiction, part mystery, and part alternate history (literary and otherwise), and very funny. The events in the book take place in a 1985 that’s apparently been changed (maybe by Nineteen Eighty-Four?). The Crimean War is still going on. Time travel and dodos for pets are common. People actually *care* about literature and art (as opposed to sports), with rabid Baconians, Raphaelites, and the Surrealists attacked by the Impressionists.

In this story, a criminal named Acheron Hades begins murdering characters in books, ultimately threatening Jane Eyre herself. “Literatec” Thursday Next, aided or thwarted by characters with interesting names (for example, her bosses Braxton Hicks and Victor Analogy, and a bad guy named Jack Schitt), ultimately solves the case. I loved all the literary allusions, although I'm ashamed to admit I've only read a summary of Jane Eyre, so I probably missed a lot there.

For more, see my review at Bookin' It ( )

A lot of mysteries these days have alternate-universe settings; these are books that could as easily be shelved in the Fantasy/Sci-Fi section as in the mystery aisle. I’ve resisted them up to now, thinking that, as Sherlock Holmes says in “The Sussex Vampire,” “This agency stands flat-footed upon the ground, and there it must remain. The world is big enough for us.” But I decided I ought to sample one such book, and I chose Jason Fforde’s The Eyre Affair—Eyre as in Jane Eyre, because the book’s detective, whose name is Thursday Next, spends some time within the novel Jane Eyre and saves its heroine from kidnapping. The detective’s intervention also changes the ending of Charlotte Bronte’s novel from a less satisfactory one to the one we have now.
The idea of fictional characters traveling outside of their books, or real people entering books, was first conceived by Woody Allen in a hilarious 1977 New Yorker short story called ‘‘The Kugelmass Episode.’’ Jason Fforde makes the idea part of an alternate-universe England in 1985, when time travel is common, though space travel is still by train and dirigible airship. It’s a place where Jurassic Park-type cloning is commonplace—the story’s detective has a pet dodo, for example.
Thursday Next is a detective in the Literary Division of the Special Operations Network, policing manuscript forgeries and other violations to the country’s literary heritage, in an England where Shakespeare has become a popular culture figure with coin operated machines called Will-Speaks that deliver soliloquies from the plays for ten pence. When she becomes involved in the theft of the Jane Eyre manuscript she finds herself facing a larger-than-life villain who is motivated by pure evil and an officer of a global mega-corporation whose motive is pure greed. The villain has the Prose Portal, the machine that enables travel into and out of books; the corporation wants the machine because it represents power to change and distort the truth.
The larger context of the story is the Crimean War between England and Russia, which, in this book, did not end in 1856 but continues to the present day, 130 years after it began. Thursday is a veteran of that war and bitterly opposes it. The outcome of her present adventure also affects the outcome of the war.
There’s a lot of wordplay with names and literary allusions in the book, and its plot turns can be quick and surprising. If your tolerance for the fantastic is high enough, you might like it. I’d say stay away if you can’t stand anything by Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett or Kurt Vonnegut or R. K. Rowling. If you do like The Eyre Affair, there are now three more Thursday Next books to keep you entertained. ( )

http://thebookwormslibrary.com/?p=714... ( )

A silly book for smart people ( )

I have to give this author credit for coming up with a completely unique idea for a story. I will definitely be reading more in the series. ( )

Really funny time travel/alternate reality book. In person Fford is like a stand-up comic. ( )