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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. Jasper Fforde has the most amazing imagination. I think that this book is a little hard to get into, but when you go on to his other books, they are just wonderful. And you have to read this one to set the scene. I highly recommend it. (  ) lynneinfla | Nov 7, 2009 |  Once I got used to the alternate reality i started to enjoy this book. I like the literary references and it took me a while to figure out that the Jane Eyre ending was wrong! (  ) WomblingStar | Nov 2, 2009 | Now here is a story for literature buffs. Thursday Next works as a kind of literary detective in a world gone mad for books. Kids trade character cards, author homes are top tourist destinations, and (my personal favorite) some theaters put on a regular performance of Richard III a la Rocky Horror Picture Show, complete with audience participation. That last had me giggling. The story is clever and the characters amusing, but I think I would have gotten a lot more out of it had I read the prerequisite novels. Specifically having read Jane Eyre and Martin Chuzzlewit would have helped immensely, but even just a penchant for 18th century literature (Dickens, Bronte, Austin, et al) would have been a huge advantage. After all, it is for those fans that this story was really written. Though there is a whole series of Thursday Next books, I think my next Fforde book will probably be one of his fairy tale retellings. I already know those stories. (  ) melydia | Oct 28, 2009 | I think I have a new favorite author! This book is brilliant. Funny, exciting, fast-paced, clever, original... The alternate history in which the book is set is brilliant - it's as if the world were designed for/by English majors. Parts of the book are laugh-out-loud funny. I loved every page. ( ) Gwendydd | Oct 19, 2009 | Chockful of funny literary references. Tough special operations officer Thursday Next fights an evil master criminal to protect the novel Jane Eyre. mulliner | Oct 17, 2009 |  no reviews | add a review
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| Book description |
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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
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:56 -0400)
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