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

Brilliant

That really is the only word to describe it. I absolutely positively loved this book!

Excellent

Wonderful performance. Charming story, all the better for its eccentricities. Pleasant listen having read this novel about 7 years prior.

A very odd but enjoyable book

If you could sum up The Eyre Affair in three words, what would they be?

quirky, alternative reality, police procedural

What other book might you compare The Eyre Affair to and why?

Jasper Fforde's other books all have this

What about Susan Duerden’s performance did you like?

She did an admirable Welsh accent and did voices for the various characters very well. She pronounced a lot of words in an annoying way, however, such as saying "secondhand" (like a used item obtained from someone else) when referring to the second hand on a watch. Lots of little irksome pronunciations like that. British readers tend to have fewer of these types of errors, so I think it was more glaring because she is British (higher expectations). She also tended to read everything with the same intensity, whether it was actually an intense moment or a funny and light moment. I think some of the humor was lost from the audio version due to this delivery style. I often have this complaint, however. I've been spoiled by the likes of Euan Morton.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Stupid question. Everyone has their own way of listening to books. It was engaging, but I never listen to books for more than a couple of hours at a time, so there's no way I'd finish this in one sitting. I like to savor books, so I would never want to finish it all at once.

Any additional comments?

I've read a couple of Jasper Fforde's books, and I have to say that they're an acquired taste. I wasn't sure I was enjoying this book for a couple of chapters because there were so many oddities about Thursday Next's world that I had to digest and accept. It was hard to sympathize with the Crimean War veterans at first because I had to get my head around the Crimean War still going on in the 1980s, for example. But, once you wade into the bizarre world and accept the dodos and the various Special Ops forces and the entire world being obsessed with classical literature, then you can enjoy the story. It's creative and very strange! I did ultimately enjoy it and will likely listen to more books in the series.

A bit long winded but ultimately enjoyable

What did you like best about The Eyre Affair? What did you like least?

I really liked the concept of the book and was really interested in the world the author created but at the same time I feel like there were a lot of sentiments that were plot lines that existed entirely independent of the main narrative which diluted the enjoyment of the main plot and was at times pretty boring. I'm not sure if these alternate plot lines come into play later in the series but I personally found them frustrating.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

really just a bit more editing

What does Susan Duerdan bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I always enjoy the voices being diverse. It helps me keep characters straight. Especially in a novel like this with so many different minor characters.

Could you see The Eyre Affair being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

On the one hand yes because it takes place in a world complex and different enough to maintain it's own story lines and with enough characters to keep the pacing up but I feel that a lot of the literary references would be lost on a television audience.

Any additional comments?

over all an entertaining book though not really as funny as i would have hoped. i was browsing the satire section when this came up and in honesty there wasn't much satire to be had unless you count the arguments and controversies of academia being applied to everyday social situations. and that was more of a backdrop than anything else.

My favorite series of all time

My favorite series, my favorite author, my favorite narrator. Narrator does all the voices so well - no trouble telling characters apart, no getting lost in who is speaking. Excellent story. Creative and captivating. Mild language in this book, but not without purpose. Not crude.

one of my favorites

aI first read this book in highschool, and have re-read it (and the series) several times since. The more well-read you are the more jokes and references you catch. It gets better with every read & listening.

Entertaining, Witty, and Pun-derful Fun!

I first learned of the Thursday Next series of books about eight years ago when I borrowed the audiobook of Something Rotten. The Eyre Affair is filled with mystery, suspense, and fun. It would admittedly be more enjoyable to those, like me, who've read Jane Eyre and the other works of classic literature mentioned within in order to catch when and how the works of Fiction are changed/restored. But even without having that knowledge, the book is a great read. Be prepared to chuckle at the character's names and the inevitable puns. The book is very well-worth one's time and effort and I highly recommend it. One bit of disclosure: the reader/listener will encounter mild Language at times. If one is listening to the audiobook, I would caution against having children within hearing range.

Loved parts. Others...too contrived.

You must love Jane Eyre to read/listen to this book. Thankfully, I do and did. A fun premise and some delightful character types like Uncle M and Aunt Polly were the main reasons I stuck it out through all the characters having their say. I can see the book as the groundwork for a serues, but then I just feel too tired to look into it. (The clever literary references are general enough for anyone who has gone through basic English Lit courses to appreciate, if other reviews have you wondering...) I liked it more after a few adult beverages, but I probably won't follow any sequels.

Too much swearing!

If this book were rated like a movie it would be rated R just on the use of profanity. Too bad the story was original and fun. I won’t listen to it again, and I won’t waste credits on any sequels.

very funny for the literate.

my sister just had surgery and I recommended these books to her with one caveat -- don't read them if it hurts to laugh. You will enjoy this series more if you are well-read but they are wonderful anyway. Unless it hurts to laugh.