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The Well of Lost Plots

by Jasper Fforde

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Series: Thursday Next (3)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
7,8301821,029 (4.04)306
Leaving Swindon behind her to hide out in the Well of Lost Plots (the place where all fiction is created), Thursday Next, Literary Detective and soon-to-be one parent family, ponders her next move from within an unpublished book of dubious merit entitled 'Caversham Heights'. Landen, her husband, is still eradicated, Aornis Hades is meddling with Thursday's memory, and Miss Havisham - when not sewing up plot-holes in 'Mill on the Floss' - is trying to break the land-speed record on the A409. But something is rotten in the state of Jurisfiction. Perkins is 'accidentally' eaten by the minotaur, and Snell succumbs to the Mispeling Vyrus. As a shadow looms over popular fiction, Thursday must keep her wits about her and discover not only what is going on, but also who she can trust to tell about it ... With grammasites, holesmiths, trainee characters, pagerunners, baby dodos and an adopted home scheduled for demolition, 'The Well of Lost Plots' is at once an addictively exciting adventure and an insight into how books are made, who makes them - and why there is no singular for 'scampi'. In the words of one critic: 'Don't ask. Just read it.'… (more)
  1. 90
    The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde (TomWaitsTables)
    TomWaitsTables: It's the novel Thurday was living in, while on the Character Exchange Program.
  2. 10
    The Official Catalog of the Library of Potential Literature by Ben Segal (bertilak)
  3. 10
    The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers (bell7)
    bell7: Similarly a zany tale with literary references and footnotes.
  4. 11
    Fables, Vol. 13: The Great Fables Crossover by Bill Willingham (TomWaitsTables)
  5. 00
    Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines (TomWaitsTables)
  6. 11
    Who's Afraid of Beowulf? by Tom Holt (Dr.Science)
    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 including Expecting Someone Taller, and Flying Dutch, but they may be difficult to find at your library or bookstore.… (more)
  7. 01
    Fables, Vol. 02: Animal Farm by Bill Willingham (TomWaitsTables)
  8. 01
    Fables, Vol. 01: Legends in Exile by Bill Willingham (TomWaitsTables)
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» See also 306 mentions

English (173)  French (3)  Italian (2)  Spanish (1)  German (1)  Dutch (1)  All languages (181)
Showing 1-5 of 173 (next | show all)
261
  freixas | Mar 31, 2023 |
i started out not really liking this one and thinking it was trying to be too smart for its own britches, as well as sensing a lack of inspiration from the author. it seemed like he had a great idea to continue the story, but didn't feel like writing it. still, it grew on me a bit, and some of the more clever aspects had me laughing out loud. ( )
  J.Flux | Aug 13, 2022 |
This was a bit of a disappointment. I really liked the first two in the series, because the pace was high and the stakes equally high. Here, the entire novel takes place in the bookworld and is a patchwork of numerous plotlines, none of which seems too dangerous (after all, it's all in the books, and not in real life). Also, Thursday's plot doesn't really move at all - as a character she only moves sideways throughout the story. The puns and wittiness have given way to pure "booktalk," which is humorous in the other books, but here there's so much of it that it just gets a bit tiring. I've heard that this is the "slow" one in the series and it'll pick back up after this, so I guess I'll keep reading. ( )
  -Eva- | Oct 20, 2021 |
The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde (2004) ( )
  arosoff | Jul 10, 2021 |
Insane to the point of, "How on earth did that even hold together?" But held together beautifully. An excellent read. ( )
  wetdryvac | Mar 2, 2021 |
Showing 1-5 of 173 (next | show all)
In Lost in a Good Book and The Well of Lost Plots, Fforde gets a bit bogged down in all the details of the fictional universe.
added by Katya0133 | editYale Review, David Galef (Oct 1, 2008)
 
Fforde's third novel featuring English sleuth Thursday Next is an interesting, enjoyable mix of detective story, fantasy, and literature.
added by Katya0133 | editSchool Library Journal, Ted Westervelt (Jun 1, 2004)
 
Like anchovies, Wagner, and Helmut Newton: will greatly appeal to people with unusual tastes--and befuddle everyone else.
added by Katya0133 | editKirkus Reviews (Feb 23, 2004)
 
Fforde has settled comfortably into series mode, producing another fun romp in an alternate universe where books are more real than reality.
added by Katya0133 | editLibrary Journal, Devon Thomas (Jan 15, 2004)
 
Fforde's sidesplitting sendup of an increasingly antibookish society is a sheer joy.
added by Katya0133 | editPublishers Weekly, Jeff Zaleski (Dec 15, 2003)
 

» Add other authors (12 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Fforde, Jasperprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Koen, ViktorCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Rostant, LarryCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Thomas, MarkCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
A wise man wants for only nourishing cabbage soup;
seek not other things.  Except perhaps a toaster.
    --  from the teachings of St Zvlkx

. . . . . the wisdom of St Zvlks is wholly owned by
                      the Toast Marketing Board . . . . .
Dedication
For Mari
who makes the torches burn brighter
First words
Making one's home in an unpublished novel wasn't without its compensations.
Quotations
...First there was OralTrad, upgraded ten thousand years later by the rhyming (for easier recall) OralTradPlus. For thousands of years this was the only Story Operating System and it is still in use today. The system branched in two about twenty thousand years ago ; on one side with CaveDaubPro) forerunner of PaintplusV2.3, GrecianUrnV1.2 SculptMarble V1.4 and the latest all encompassing SuperArtisticExpression-5). The other strand, the Picto-Phonetic Storytelling Systems, started with ClayTablet V2.1 and went through several competing systems (WaxTablet, Papyrus, VelliumPlus before merging into the award winning SCROLL, which was upgraded eight times to V3.3 before being swept aside by the all-new and clearly superior BOOK V1. Stable, easy to store and transport, compact and with a workable index, BOOK led the way for nearly eighteen hundred years...
'Good. Item seven. The had had and that that problem. Lady Cavendish, weren't you working on this?' // Lady Cavendish stood up and gathered her thoughts. // 'Indeed. The use of had had and that that has to be strictly controlled; they can interrupt the ImaginoTransference quite dramatically, causing readers to go back over the sentence in confusion, something we try to avoid.' // 'Go on.' // 'It's mostly an unlicensed usage problem. At the last count David Copperfield alone had had had had sixty-three times, all but then unapproved. Pilgrim's Progress may also be a problem owing to its had had / that that ratio.' // 'So what's the problem in Progress?' // 'That that had that that ten times but had had had had only thrice. Increased had had usage had had to be overlooked but not if the number exceeds that that that usage.' // 'Hmm,' said the Bellman. 'I thought had had had had TGC's approval for use in Dickens? What's the problem?' // 'Take the first had had and that that in the book by way of example,' explained Lady Cavendish. 'You would have thought that that first had had had had good occasion to be seen as had, had you not? Had had had approval but had had had not; equally it is true to say that that that that had had approval but that that other that that had not.' // 'So the problem with that other that that was that--?' // 'That that other-other that that had had approval.' // 'Okay,' said the Bellman, whose head was in danger of falling apart like a chocolate orange, 'let me get this straight: David Copperfield, unlike Pilgrim's Progress, which had had had, had had had had. Had had had had TGC's approval?' // There was a very long pause. // 'Right,' said the Bellman with a sigh. 'That's it for the moment...'
"Well, Mother was very upset about it and I think you should apologize."
"Okay, next time -- wait a moment, I'm dead -- I can't apologize to anyone. You apologize for me."
"Accept with good grace that which is given with good grace."
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Wikipedia in English (1)

Leaving Swindon behind her to hide out in the Well of Lost Plots (the place where all fiction is created), Thursday Next, Literary Detective and soon-to-be one parent family, ponders her next move from within an unpublished book of dubious merit entitled 'Caversham Heights'. Landen, her husband, is still eradicated, Aornis Hades is meddling with Thursday's memory, and Miss Havisham - when not sewing up plot-holes in 'Mill on the Floss' - is trying to break the land-speed record on the A409. But something is rotten in the state of Jurisfiction. Perkins is 'accidentally' eaten by the minotaur, and Snell succumbs to the Mispeling Vyrus. As a shadow looms over popular fiction, Thursday must keep her wits about her and discover not only what is going on, but also who she can trust to tell about it ... With grammasites, holesmiths, trainee characters, pagerunners, baby dodos and an adopted home scheduled for demolition, 'The Well of Lost Plots' is at once an addictively exciting adventure and an insight into how books are made, who makes them - and why there is no singular for 'scampi'. In the words of one critic: 'Don't ask. Just read it.'

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