The Eyre Affair

A Thursday Next Novel

By: Jasper Fforde

Narrated by: Susan Duerden

Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

Alex Award—YALSA

The first in a series of outlandishly clever adventures featuring the resourceful, fearless literary detective Thursday Next—a New York Times best seller!

In Jasper Fforde's Great Britain, circa 1985, 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 and forging Byronic verse is a punishable offense. All this is business as usual for Thursday Next, renowned Special Operative in literary detection. But when someone begins kidnapping characters from works of literature and plucks Jane Eyre from the pages of Brontë's novel, Thursday is faced with the challenge of her career.

Fforde's ingenious fantasy—enhanced by a website that re-creates the world of the novel—unites intrigue with English literature in a delightfully witty mix.

Delve into Jasper Fforde's literary universe with the other books in his Thursday Next fantasy/detective series.

©2003 Jasper Fforde (P)2009 Penguin

Critic reviews

“Neatly delivers alternate history, Monty Pythonesque comedy skits, Grand Guignol supervillains, thwarted lovers, po-mo intertextuality, political commentary, time travel, vampires, absent-minded inventors, a hard-boiled narrator, and lots, lots more. . . . Suspend your disbelief, find a quiet corner and just surrender to the storytelling voice of the unstoppable, ever-resourceful Thursday Next.”—The Washington Post

“Fforde’s imaginative novel will satiate readers looking for a Harry Potter-esque tale. . . . The Eyre Affair’s literary wonderland recalls Douglas Adams’s Hitchhikers series, the works of Lewis Carroll and Woody Allen’s The Kugelmass Episode.”—USA Today

“[Thursday Next is] part Bridget Jones, part Nancy Drew, and part Dirty Harry.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

Excellent

Everything is wonderful about this book...save the constant nattering of the heroine’s father that she should give up her job (that she’s good at), stop all other interests and start having babies. 🙄 I mean honestly.....

Awesome

Jasper Fforde is my hero. He is so creative. HIs love of language and words is visible in his descriptions . Thursday Next is a great haracter surrounded by other great characters. The naration is great and Ms Duerdan is, for me , the voice of Thursday Next. I love this series .

Incredible Creativity but so Weird!

This is book one in a series.

Jasper Fforde may be the most creative writer I've ever read. It is almost beyond my understanding how his thinking processes work. Multiple story lines and sub plots intertwine in such a complex way that I was dizzy for the first several chapters, particularly in light of the crazy world he has created for this book.

The parallel universe Fforde describes is wildly different. There is a 100+ year war between Russia and England over the Crimean Peninsula, time travel, a Chronoguard (time police force), pet Dodo birds and LiteraTecs who police the world of books. Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre and other fictional characters travel to and from the real world, and some real people transport into books. Vampires, werewolves and other gruesome creatures are common.

Fforde's sense of humor is delightful. His characters have names like Victor Analogy, Acheron Hades, Jack Sh-t and, of course, Thursday Next. I laughed out loud at numerous comic situations and turns of phrase.

The narrator is excellent. She handles several British accents, male, female, old, young, crazy, evil and ... finally ... Welsh.

I recommend that anyone who buys this book read Jane Eyre, or at least a synopsis easily found online, before starting "The Eyre Affair."

Overall, I commend Fforde's wildly creative universe and undeniably complex plots. But I found it too confusing to enjoy. Hundreds of thousands of people disagree with me, so try it if you are intrigued.

So fun

The Thursday Next series is a fun reinvention of literature. Using their original voices, Jasper Fforde shows us the classics as we have never envisioned them, and it works out fantastically. As always, Emily Gray is brilliant.

Unlike anything else

What a treat. A terrific protagonist and an inventive story that has sci-fi, magic, alt history and classic literature thrown in for a thrill ride. looking forward to the whole series.

A great find

5 star reviews are rare for me. Something about the book has to be exceptional. When I saw the title of the book, I decided to read Jane Eyre first, as it was in my list already. I'm very glad I did, though it wasn't necessary.
This book has a ton of references and it is very fun to read if you catch even a few of them.
The characters were fun and believable. The dialogue was clever and the adventures in love were realistic. There was some moments of inconsistency which hurt the credibility of some of the characters but it wasn't detrimental to the story. I recommend this book. The author obviously is well read and has done his research.

Practical magic and love of books

This book was a welcome light, fun play on police procedural.

Adventure between the odd cast of characters unraveling a hunt for a person determined to make havoc.
I've never understood the fascination with nihilism, but it does seem capable of terrible acts. Thursday has her odd family and job and old flame and long lost love.

Fun!

What a fun story. Great narrator. I'm looking forward to listening to the others in this series.

Candy

I loved this. It's not for everyone, but if you like subtle literature references, and not so subtle references it's a lot of fun. You have to be comfortable with your favorite literature and history being rewritten, and I'm sure some would say bastardized, but if you can adapt you will love it. It mixes genres constantly. This book is for the person who loves books... all genres... and is comfortable reading high brow literature along with a paperback bestseller or silly romance. It's fun, it doesn't discriminate.

Fforde's Thursday Next Series

I have read most, if not all, of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Series. This was my first time listening to one of the books and the first time I read The Eyre Affair. These books resonate with people who have a good grasp of English literature, and are willing to suspend your belief in an accurate description of world history and chronology. The novels are really very clever, and the more you know about literature, history and chronology the funnier they are. The Goliath Corporation reminds me a bit of Kurt Vonnegut's Ramjac Corporation, from which it was likely stolen.

Thursday Next is an investigator in the Spec Ops literary division. She fought in the long-running Crimean War between Russia and England before joining the spec ops. The book begins with the theft of The original manuscript of Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit. If characters are deleted or altered in the original manuscript, it causes rewriting of all of the books that were based on the original manuscript. I don't want to spoil it for you, but if you have imagination and a sense of humor, these books are very well worth reading.