Penzler Pick, January 2002: When I first heard the premise of this unique mystery, I doubted that a first-time author could pull off a complicated caper involving so many assumptions, not the least of which is a complete suspension of disbelief. Jasper Fforde is not only up to the task, he exceeds all expectations.

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


From Publishers Weekly
HSurreal and hilariously funny, this alternate history, the debut novel of British author Fforde, will appeal to lovers of zany genre work (think Douglas Adams) and lovers of classic literature alike. The scene: Great Britain circa 1985, but a Great Britain where literature has a prominent place in everyday life. For pennies, corner Will-Speak machines will quote Shakespeare; Richard III is performed with audience participation … la Rocky Horror and children swap Henry Fielding bubble-gum cards. In this world where high lit matters, Special Operative Thursday Next (literary detective) seeks to retrieve the stolen manuscript of Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit. The evil Acheron Hades has plans for it: after kidnapping Next's mad-scientist uncle, Mycroft, and commandeering Mycroft's invention, the Prose Portal, which enables people to cross into a literary text, he sends a minion into Chuzzlewit to seize and kill a minor character, thus forever changing the novel. Worse is to come. When the manuscript of Jane Eyre, Next's favorite novel, disappears, and Jane herself is spirited out of the book, Next must pursue Hades inside Charlotte Bront‰'s masterpiece. The plethora of oddly named characters can be confusing, and the story's episodic nature means that the action moves forward in fits and starts. The cartoonish characters are either all good or all bad, but the villain's comeuppance is still satisfying. Witty and clever, this literate romp heralds a fun new series set in a wonderfully original world. (Jan. 28)Forecast: With a six-city author tour, a well-conceived Web site at www.thursdaynext.com and crossover appeal to Bront‰ fans, this is likely to attract more attention than the usual first genre novel.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-A delightful first book in a proposed series set in an alternative and offbeat Britain of 1985 and featuring Literary Detective Thursday Next. England is still fighting the Crimean War with Imperialist Russia, and the prevailing culture is based on literature. When the original manuscript of Charles Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit is stolen, it is a high crime indeed, and Next is called in to help catch the culprit. To make matters worse, her "mad as pants" but brilliant uncle has created a machine that could cause all kinds of literary mayhem. This title has a cast of complete nutters. Acheron Hades, the world's third most wanted villain, has just the right mix of evil and charm to make readers look forward to meeting the first and second most wanted. Be warned that minor passersby may come round again in this "mad tea party" of a story. The novel has the surrealism and satire of Douglas Adams, the nonsense and wordplay of Lewis Carroll, and the descriptive detail of Connie Willis. What sets Fforde's work apart, however, is its winsome heroine. This is a highly entertaining mystery with social satire, time travel, fantasy, science fiction, and romance thrown in to the well-written mix.Jane Halsall, McHenry Public Library District, ILCopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
"So unusual you've got to read it to believe it; and please do," trumpets London's Bookseller. Unusual, indeed; in Fforde's debut, set in 1985 in an alternate London, literature is (refreshingly) so important that you can get punished for forging Byronic verses. Then someone starts kidnapping literary characters Jane Eyre's disappearance is particularly traumatic and Special Operative Thursday Next must stop this before it's too late. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
In this delicious spoof, Londoners, in a fantastical 1985, take their literature very seriously. Jasper Fforde's first novel introduces heroine Thursday Next, SpecOps-27 Literary Detective. Time-travel is commonplace (Thursday's father, a member of the ChronoGuard, is off correcting history's mistakes), while dirigible is the best way to make long trips in real time. The Crimean War has been claiming victims for 135 years and, oh yes, literary characters slip in and out of their books as necessary. Fforde's smart-alecky wit is served well by Elizabeth Sastre's performance. Her slightly bemused, slightly bewildered Thursday becomes everything a feisty P.I. should be. Her ingenuous yet intelligent reading brings zaniness to all Fforde's literary jokes. Fforde handles his material deftly, with tongue planted firmly in cheek. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
"[Thursday Next is] part Bridget Jones, part Nancy Drew, and part Dirty Harry."

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review from Discover Great New Writers
"Umberto Eco meets Harry Potter," is the way Randolph, one of our Discover readers, described this imaginative first novel. The two may be an unlikely pair, but in many ways they serve up an apt description of this highly original work, which examines what might happen if the barriers between fiction and reality disappeared and made it possible to share, or even alter, an important moment in classic literary history.

In Jasper Fforde's hilarious romp through time and space, heroine Thursday Next -- an agent with the secretive Special Operations Network, Literary Detective Division -- is sent to investigate the theft of Dickens's original manuscript for Martin Chuzzlewit by a diabolical archvillain. What really happened to the elusive character Mr. Quaverly in Dickens's book? Or for that matter, to the drunken tinker Christopher Sly from Shakespeare's play The Taming of the Shrew? Why do these characters appear once, only to play no further role in the stories? Is it possible that their disappearances were not the result of innocent editorial decisions by Dickens and Shakespeare but were instead due to devilish doings? Thursday's resolute pursuit of literary truth and justice takes her and an extended cast of ingenious characters on a convoluted historical caper, including a wild and crazy performance of Richard III that takes many of its theatrical cues from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Fforde's first fiction foray will delight a broad spectrum of intrepid readers, including aficionados of science fiction, history, British humor, and classic literature alike. (Winter 2002 Selection)

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Great Britain circa 1985: time travel is routine, cloning is reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. Based on an imaginary world where time and reality bend in the most convincing and original way since Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Eyre Affair is a delightful rabbit hole of a read: once you fall in you may never come back.

England is a virtual police state where someone has begun kidnapping characters from works of literature. When this madman plucks Jane Eyre from the pages of Bronte's novel, Thursday Next -- our resourceful heroine and renowned Special Operative in literary detection -- faces the challenge of her career. She must track down the world's Third Most Wanted criminal and enter the novel herself to avert a heinous act of literary homicide.

Suspenseful and outlandish, absorbing and fun, The Eyre Affair is a caper unlike any other, and an introduction to the imagination of a most distinctive writer and his singular fictional universe.

FROM THE CRITICS

New York Times

A combination of fantasy, comedy, science fiction, Douglas Adams, Kurt Vonnegut, Lewis Carroll, Monty Python and even 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'.

LA Times

Lovers of great literature with a fondness for light genre fiction...will feel instantly at home in The Eyre Affair...

Demensions

The Eyre Affair is a delightful rabbit hole of a read: once you fall in you may never come back. All this reality-twisting action is set against a, well, rather reality-twisting backdrop.

Rocky Mountain News

...a highly inventive, frequently hilarious and occasionally poignant tale.

Houston Chronicle