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There is another 1985, somewhere in the could-have-been, where dodos are regenerated in home-cloning kits and everyone is disappointed by the ending of Jane Eyre. But in this world there are policemen who can travel across time, a Welsh republic - and a woman called Thursday Next.
Kerian: If for some reason you read The Eyre Affair without having read Jane Eyre, I definitely recommend it. It will certainly be interesting to read and is a very good book.
coliemta: One's more literary and the other more science-fiction-y, but they're both bizarre, hilarious and similar in feel. Most people who like one will enjoy the other.
ten_floors_up: This and the other books in the Aberystwyth series share a specifically British alternative universe, and a dollop of entertainingly twisted literary pastiche.
SimoneA: While one is about travelling through time and the other about travelling through books, the atmosphere of these book (series) is very similar, with a strong female lead and a crazy set of side characters.
timtom: If you wish more literary characters escaped the pages of their books to mingle in our own contemporary reality, head to Wellington, New Zealand where Dickensian villains might just about destroy everything...
Dr.Science: The English author Tom Holt is relatively unknown in America, but very popular in England. If you enjoy Jasper Fforde or Christopher Moore you will most certainly enjoy Tom Holt's wry sense of English humor and the absurd. He has written a number of excellent books but they will be difficult to find at your library.… (more)
I have read this twice, and love it so much. My favorite part is when they go to see Richard III, and the audience participates with the cast. It's such a fun, well written book! ( )
I fully expected to love this book, but it just didn't do anything for me. I wish the author would have allowed the reader to spend more time in the books rather than focusing on Thursday's life. I definitely won't be reading any more Fforde books. ( )
Fun because it's set in an alternate 1985, where the Crimean War is still going on and state operatives defend and protect literary works. Thursday Next is very much like Kinsey Milhone of the Sue Grafton books - irreverent, fearless, and lucky. The author uses a lot of literary jokes and even has an audience-cast Richard III play to a house of Rocky Horror-like fans who join in and heckle. It's science fiction too, because owning an original manuscript and controlling a new technology make it possible to change everyone's copy of the book forever, by changing the story. There's also a running gag about who wrote Shakespeare's works, and even a romance. ( )
Fun because it's set in an alternate 1985, where the Crimean War is still going on and state operatives defend and protect literary works. Thursday Next is very much like Kinsey Milhone of the Sue Grafton books - irreverent, fearless, and lucky. The author uses a lot of literary jokes and even has an audience-cast Richard III play to a house of Rocky Horror-like fans who join in and heckle. It's science fiction too, because owning an original manuscript and controlling a new technology make it possible to change everyone's copy of the book forever, by changing the story. There's also a running gag about who wrote Shakespeare's works, and even a romance. ( )
Fforde wears the marks of his literary forebears proudly on his sleeve, from Lewis Carroll and Wodehouse to Douglas Adams and Monty Python, in both inventiveness and sense of fun.
added by Katya0133 | editYale Review, David Galef(Oct 1, 2008)
Fforde delivers almost every sentence with a sly wink, and he's got an easy way with wordplay, trivia and inside jokes. ''The Eyre Affair'' can be too clever by half, and fiction like this is certainly an acquired taste, but Fforde's verve is rarely less than infectious.
A good editor might have trimmed away some of the annoying padding of this novel and helped the author to assimilate his heavy borrowings from other artists, but no matter: by the end of the novel, Mr. Fforde has, however belatedly, found his own exuberant voice.
THE EYRE AFFAIR is mostly a collection of jokes, conceits and puzzles. It's smart, frisky and sheer catnip for former English majors....And some of the jokes are clever indeed.
Who never knew I was to be published but would have been most proud nonetheless —and not a little surprised.
First words
My father had a face that could stop a clock.
Quotations
The barriers between reality and fiction are softer than we think; a bit like a frozen lake. Hundreds of people can walk across it, but then one evening a thin spot develops and someone falls through; the hole is frozen over by the following morning. (Victor to Thursday)
Governments and fashions come and go but Jane Eyre is for all time.
It was a glorious sunny day, and the airship droned past the small puffy clouds that punctuated the sky like a flock of aerial sheep.
He wore thick glasses and mismatched clothes and his face was a moonscape of healed acne.
"You shot him six times in the face." The dying killer smiled. "That I remember." "Six times! Why?" Felix7 frowned and started to shiver. "Six was all I had," he answered simply.
His breathing became more labored and finally stopped altogether. "Shit!" "That's Mr. Schitt to you, Next!" said a voice behind us. We turned to see my second-least favorite person and two of his minders.
"Bullshit, Schitt."
"Is it worth the life of two officers?" "Most certainly. SpecOps officers die pointlessly every day. If we can, we should try our best to make those deaths worthwhile."
"And if you want a piece of advice, go easy with Jack Schitt. We hear the man's a psychopath." "Thanks for the tip, Franklin," I said. "I'd never have noticed."
Toad News anchorwoman somberly announced that a young surrealist had been killed—stabbed to death by a gang adhering to a radical school of French impressionists.
"I'm not mad, I'm just...well, differently moraled, that's all.
There is another 1985, somewhere in the could-have-been, where dodos are regenerated in home-cloning kits and everyone is disappointed by the ending of Jane Eyre. But in this world there are policemen who can travel across time, a Welsh republic - and a woman called Thursday Next.
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***Group Read: The Eyre Affair
Wikipedia in English (2)
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