The Eyre Affair: A Thursday Next Novel

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

Reader's Annotation

A madman kidnaps Jane Eyre from the pages of Charlotte Brontë's famous novel.

Summary

In Great Britain circa 1985, time travel is routine, and even travel into works of literature is possible. If you enter the world of a book, you can change it—but only for that one copy. However, if you enter the original manuscript, any change will affect every subsequent copy of that work. Naturally there are laws against that sort of thing, and it's the job of Thursday Next, Special Operative in literary detection, to enforce them. When a madman kidnaps Jane Eyre from the pages of Brontë's novel, Thursday faces the challenge of her career. With the help of her time-traveling father, an executive of the all-powerful Goliath Corporation, and Edward Rochester himself, Thursday must track down the criminal and enter the novel herself to avert an act of literary homicide.

Evaluation

This was a fun and silly novel. I loved all the literary references, the funny names, and the made-up words. It may be a little hard to suspend disbelief for such a silly conceit as traveling into the pages of a novel, but The Eyre Affair is not meant to be taken seriously. If you liked this book, try the rest of Fforde's Thursday Next series or perhaps one his other series such as Nursery Crimes Division or Shades of Grey.

For even more silly British humour in the vein of the Thursday Next series, try the works of Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, and P.G. Wodehouse.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy
Subgenres: