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

Great Book

This is a Great start to a captivating series, with characters you care about and root for. Each book leaves you satisfied, but eager to find out what will happen in the next one.

Good but not great

Very imaginative combination of an alternative universe with time travel and other science fiction. It was a little too strange for me at times. Romance part was not very convincing. But there were many good points also. I may listen to another Thursday Next novel, but not right away.

A Worthy Read

Close friends had long recommended Jasper Fforde and I finally decided to take the plunge. The story is very good, not great, but very entertaining. There were are few stylistic bits, e.g., beginning each chapter with quotes from fictional gov't transcripts or characters' biographies or journals; also the tension over Thursday's brother could have been omitted. I also wanted to know more about the villain and the text offers very little. If I could go back would I drop a credit on this book? ABSOLUTELY. It was fun and entertaining, that's what I was looking for and that's what I got. The narrator is excellent, very good with accents. I immediately downloaded book 2 of the Thursday Next series, clearly I'm hooked.

six stars

Combination of literary steepage and science fiction. Wish I was more steeped in literature to get more of the jokes/connections. Reading Wikipedia entries added much to my enjoyment. As a bicycle mechanic, I did get the references to Sturmey Archer and Bowden Cable. Which made me realize I likely missed dozens of others.

Fun listening

Definitely not the most heavy going of literature. But clever and funny, particularly for those with a wide love of good books. I listen to audio books when running, and this one really helped me crank the miles out - I couldn't wait to get out for my next installment.

twisty time travel

This reminds me a bit of an Artemis Fowl book only with curse words. There is some clever word play and humorous moments, however, the story did not hold my attention very well. The constant time travel back and forth made it seem like a never ending journey to the inevitable non-ending cliffhanger.

Meh. Not terrible, not good.

Would you try another book from Jasper Fforde and/or Susan Duerdan?

Duerdan does a pretty decent job of reading. Most of the men sound alike, but not so much when they're talking to each other, so it's not hard to figure out what's going on.

Would you be willing to try another book from Jasper Fforde? Why or why not?

It's weird. The story makes a pretty important point about Jane Eyre being written in the first person, so action that happens away from her makes no sense. THIS book is also written in the first person, and yet there is CONSTANTLY action happening away from the narrator that we know about. Even if it was done to intentionally be ironic, it's stupid. There is no purpose that this book is written in 1st person when the author is going to mind-jump and tell us all sorts of things that would be FINE from a 3rd-person point of view.

Seriously, at one point the narrator is giving info to a character via radio, and still reporting on facial expressions and thought processes of OTHER people she can't see. Really, it's stuff an editor should have fixed. I don't care if the author was trying to do it to make a literary point/joke. It's dumb.

Was The Eyre Affair worth the listening time?

Eh....sort of. I wouldn't spend actual money on this, but for a discount it wasn't a waste of my 3-for-2 (or whatever) credits. I can't say I'll listen again.

Any additional comments?

There's a whole series. I may try another to see if the author gets better as he develops, but I haven't decided for sure.

Confusing yet predictable

Dodos, Crimean War, and Wales as its own authoritarian state in 1985? Not to mention book police? I think the reader has to be really invested in the premise behind these Thursday Next books to appreciate them. I wasn't. I'm a historian so I found the historical flip flops silly and annoying. The plot was pretty predictable but it had some charming twists that kept me intrigued enough to keep listening. I would never have gotten through it if I was reading it though. I will not be choosing another one of these Thursday books. NEXT!

Bizarre and highly entertaining

Perfectly bizarre intact world model. Hard to follow at first bit mostly because it was so utterly new to me. I would like to read more about Thursday Next’s adventures. This was a great deal of fun - high energy - and the reader really brought that energy to live with her narration!! I personally love narration by Susan Duerden and that is how I found this novel.

Entirely Eyre

What could a first book do but be a phenomenal introduction to the second. Journey with Thursday as she begins her life with SpecOps and as a literagent...
The book itself is such a visual piece of art that it's impressive to have such a successful audible copy. Applause all around