The Eyre Affair: A Thursday Next Novel (Thursday Next Novels (Penguin Books))
by Jasper Fforde

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Book Summary Information

• ISBN13: 9780142001806
• Condition: New
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Book Reviews of The Eyre Affair: A Thursday Next Novel (Thursday Next Novels (Penguin Books))

Book Review: Personally, I'd go inside some Victorian Erotica
Summary: 5 Stars

Fforde's imagination is breathtaking. While the characters are fairly mundane (with the exception of Thursday herself and Acheron a bit), the world Fforde has created is extremely novel and interesting. I'll deal with character first so I can get it out of the way. Next is a wonderful protagonist, full of intriguing idiosyncrasies, a biting sense of humour, intelligence and street smarts. The book is mostly told in first person from her point of view, though there are some passages that are in third person, almost as if they were told to her later. This makes an effective mix as the reader gets to hear about events that happen away from Next, but almost the entire book is coloured with Next's unique interpretation of things. Hades makes a really good villain, though he is a bit stereotypical. Then again, I think that's the point, as Fforde writes him deliberately over the top. He takes pride in his evilness, and even makes statements like "I haven't committed a despicable act in the last ten minutes!" He does have a bit of a third dimension, but he operates more as a foil for Next then as a true character. Thankfully, though, he doesn't suffer from "stupid villain" syndrome, where the villain is required to do something dumb in order to be defeated. Instead, a bit of luck and some good observational skills on Next's part do him in. He's a lot of fun, and the game that he plays with Next is entertaining to watch.

The rest of the characters are quirky but don't get a lot of detail added to them. There's Next's father, a rogue ChronoGuard who is roaming through the timelines. There's Jack Schitt, the Goliath corporation man, who's as slimy as most corporation "villains" in books nowadays. There's also some of Next's partners, who get just a little characterization, enough to make them at least two-dimensional instead of just one. And, of course, there are the literary characters, such as Jane Eyre and her love, Edward Rochester, as well as Mr. Quaverly from Martin Chuzzlewit. Fforde does a bit better with Rochester, who is more involved with the ending and helps Next out when she really needs it.

But as I said, this is not really a book about character. This is a book about images, ideas, and style, and this is where Fforde excels. He has truly come up with an interesting world to play in. Literature is almost everything, and the arts are first and foremost (except for wars, of course). Baconians go door to door to try and convince people that Francis Bacon wrote the plays the are credited to William Shakespeare. Surrealists are condemned, but then later made legal. When this happens, anti-Surrealists riot. There are kiosks at the blimp stations (blimps are the main form of air travel in this world) that give you snippets of Shakespeare. Next plays a five-minute snippet of Richard III while she's waiting for her flight. Imagine a performance of Richard III that's performed every weekend for fifteen years, where the audience members are the actors and there is a form of audience participation very familiar to Rocky Horror Picture Show fans.

Most impressive of all, a machine is created that will allow people to enter a novel or a poem. If this happens in the original manuscript and things are changed, the changes are reflected in every copy of the book in existence. If it happens in just a copy, then other copies are unaffected. You can interact with characters in the novel, and if those characters are not "on-screen" in the novel, you can do anything you want. Since Jane Eyre is told in first person, Next has to avoid her when she's in the novel. But she can interact with Rochester as much as she wants, as long as Rochester is not interacting with Jane. It's a fascinating concept and Fforde presents it all very well.

The world is different from ours in many other ways, too. The Crimean War between Britain and Tsarist Russia has been going on for 150 years with no end in sight (though there have been negotiations). It is implied that the French Revolution is fairly recent as well. The only fault in this world, and it really is minor considering how illogical the world is anyway, is that some of the history doesn't fit together. If the Crimean War is still going on and the French Revolution is recent, there is no way there should have been a big war with a Nazi Germany. The conditions that created Nazi Germany would probably not have existed in this type of world. Thankfully, this is just mentioned in passing before Fforde continues with his narrative.

I loved everything about this book, though. I laughed at some of the absurdities (like the Baconians and the ongoing debate about Shakespeare's plays, which gets "solved" in a unique way that avoids treading on any of the real theories that are out there). The characters are just good enough to drive the narrative forward and present this wonderful world that Fforde has created. They do what they have to do. Fforde's writing is marvelous and his use of language is really impressive. When he writes scenes that take place in famous works of literature, they don't feel out of place. He's succeeded in writing an extremely literary novel that doesn't necessarily take itself too seriously. He has fun, and so will you. Check it out today.

David Roy

Summary of The Eyre Affair: A Thursday Next Novel (Thursday Next Novels (Penguin Books))

Imagine this. Great Britain in 1985 is close to being a police state. The Crimean War has dragged on for more than 130 years and Wales is self-governing. The only recognizable thing about this England is her citizens' enduring love of literature. And the Third Most Wanted criminal, Acheron Hades, is stealing characters from England's cherished literary heritage and holding them for ransom.

Bibliophiles will be enchanted, but not surprised, to learn that stealing a character from a book only changes that one book, but Hades has escalated his thievery. He has begun attacking the original manuscripts, thus changing all copies in print and enraging the reading public. That's why Special Operations Network has a Literary Division, and it is why one of its operatives, Thursday Next, is on the case.

Thursday is utterly delightful. She is vulnerable, smart, and, above all, literate. She has been trying to trace Hades ever since he stole Mr. Quaverley from the original manuscript of Martin Chuzzlewit and killed him. You will only remember Mr. Quaverley if you read Martin Chuzzlewit prior to 1985. But now Hades has set his sights on one of the plums of literature, Jane Eyre, and he must be stopped.

How Thursday achieves this and manages to preserve one of the great books of the Western canon makes for delightfully hilarious reading. You do not have to be an English major to be pulled into this story. You'll be rooting for Thursday, Jane, Mr. Rochester--and a familiar ending. --Otto Penzler

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