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

Don't read this book ... UNLESS

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

If you like audio books and reading, this book will have your reading more and more. Bronte, Austin, and many more classics. The way FForde removes classic charactors and uses them in different contexts will make you go back to the originals to see if you could pick up these personality traits.
Then the clever use of alternate histories of real events, again the listener will have to review the actual history (as we know it) to get the parody and paralels.
oh yeah, once you've gone through the first book over and over until you pick up all the plot shifts, you WILL be moving on to the next book and so on ... listener beware!

What did you like best about this story?

The amount of crossed genres at first is confusing. then, once you just go with the concept of all things crossing over and through books, you will begin to wonder how far the ideas can go.

What about Susan Duerdan’s performance did you like?

well portrayed with the sarcasm and snarkiness that a real person migh experience put in situation after situation.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Jane and Heathcliff tonight, Live on 20/20.

Any additional comments?

A friend told me the basis of the plot line (jumping in and out of the books of classic litrature) and Jasper does not disappoint.

A lark for bibliophiles everywhere.

Any additional comments?

Do you love classic literature? Do you enjoy whimsy and word plays? A smile that turns into a laugh? If so, this lighthearted frolic into literary never, never land will delight you. I'm not a mystery fan but was drawn to this book by the allusion to "Jane Eyre" and I'm so glad I listened to it. Give yourself a vacation and enjoy this literary romp.

Fantastic series!!

I'm on the third listen of this series in two months! I relistened to it a second time as soon as I had finished the seventh book. Now, here I am again, listening for this third time after having listened to several other books. It is so engaging, the narrators bringing you into the story in a wonderful way, details revealing themselves that I had missed previously, just as delighted to be taken into these wonderful worlds Jasper Fforde has created. Highly recommend!!

GOD BLESS MR.FFORDE

Jasper Fforde is the most creative author ever and by far my favorite of all time.

Flair in the Eyre

Would you consider the audio edition of The Eyre Affair to be better than the print version?

Any additional comments?

The Eyre Affair
Jasper Fforde
****.5

I have to say, I had a rollicking good time listening to The Eyre Affair.
I note that some reviews suggest that the names were hard to follow, I don’t agree. I found the names funny and individual enough to follow easily.
The story was a bibliophile’s delight. The allusions were terrific and showed a solid knowledge of some of my favorite books. The alternative universe was a delight. The main character was believable and interesting. I did think her romance with her ex was a ‘bit’ heavy handed, but it was not the center of the story.

The idea that a society exists that loves books as much as they do in Fforde’s novel was very appealing. His ideas and writing show a very original mind and voice. Fforde built enough tweaks in the system to make it interesting and yet it stayed believable.
I look forward to more Tuesday Next novels.

Loved this narrator!

Would you listen to The Eyre Affair again? Why?

I'd definitely listen to this book a second time. It is such a fun and crazy book.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

I found that I had to leave some expectations at the door with this novel. Jasper Fforde has truly created an alternate reality. This means that absolutely anything can happen which did keep me on the edge of my seat.

Have you listened to any of Susan Duerdan’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This was my first audiobook narrated by Susan Duerdan and I just loved her narration. She is now my favorite narrator and I'll be looking for more books narrated by her.

Eyre Affair-Silly story

I really tried but didn't enjoy this book. It tends to try too hard to be clever and to include many genres (humour, sci fi, horror, detective, literary, etc) and also found it to be overly silly. After 25% into the Audible I found myself forcing to listen to it.

Love these books

I have so much fun with jasper fforde books. Such a quirky way of looking at the world. This was a lot of fun.

DISAPPOINTED - Updated narrator (Susan Duerden)

I bought the first Thursday Next novels in 2009. Hysterical stuff, decent crime/mystery alternative fiction novels. The 009 editions were narrated by Elizabeth Sastre. Elizabeth did a much better job narrating the book. She had better range, and reallyy gave Thursday more "Lilt" (for lack of a better word).

Now how do I know that ... I had the older editions w/ Sastre on my computer, and phone, and found that they did not show up in My Library properly - click on book, get error, could play though. After going back/forth w/ Audible, I ended up getting the newer versions w/ the newer narrator. I won't be deleting the older narrator from my iPhone, I can tell you..

What a fun start to a series!

Have you ever thought the classics would be so much better if they weren't such bummers? Check out the Meta-bookworm-world of Thursday Next and her special ops agent teams!