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Title: The Eyre Affair: A Novel by Jasper Fforde ISBN: 0-14-200180-5 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 25 February, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.14 (175 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Harry Potter for adults?
Comment: The concept of parallel universes is a powerful literary contrivance. It allows an author to indiscriminately devise characters, circumstances and mechanisms not allowed in mainstream fiction. Inventive abilities are the only restraining element. Fforde fully displays his inventive talents in this fantasy of a world dominated by literature and its characters. Setting the story in a alternate 20th Century Britain, he provides a familiar scene. The familiarity is disrupted by unusual events - like a "temporal anomaly" appearing on a country road. British imperialist ambitions haven't been shed, but they're confined to the Russian Crimea where a war has peristed for over a century. All this becomes necessary background in a story of a LitCop striving to protect the reputations and products of British writers.
Literature is held in high regard in this tale - that alone should recommend this book. Authors are memorised in this society. Books discussed and debated, characters assessed, true authorship is argued over when the merest hint of alternatives presents itself. Inevitably, the issue of who actually wrote Shakespeare's works consumes substantial space in this book. Societies form to debate the issue, taking to the streets or vandalising when milder forms of assertion fail. As a SpecialOps agent, Thursday Next is caught up in much of this, but her true role is that of combatting Evil. Evil, of course, is personified in a former teacher of Thursday's, Archeron Hades - "a lech". Thus, with one phrase, the protagonists are identified and innocent womanhood is threatened by male dominance. Even Harry Potter tales don't portray as starkly as this. But Harry Potter is written for children - who are more critical.
Archeon is the archetypical - whell, not "mad scientist" - let's say "mad scholar". There's a bit of "world domination" in his thinking, but mostly he's interesting in pulling off the coup having the most impact. After a rehearsive heist of one manuscript, he goes after The Big One, the Kohinoor of British literature - Jane Eyre. If he scores this, he can manipulate every copy of the book ever printed. Then what? Enter the other giant figure - Goliath Corporation - which, like all powerful businesses in today's world, has lost sight of the dividing line between commerce and government. The Crimea has become THE icon of British power and must be retained. What could two such monumental forces of Evil not achieve working together? Especially given that Goliath's representative is named Jack Schitt.
Thursday, who has lost a brother in the Crimea and a fiance to her work, opens the story by losing two colleagues to Hades in a botched arrest attempt. Hades has "special powers" granting him the ability to steal undetected and escape in a variety of disguises. For a resident of a society supposedly steeped in literature, some of Thursday's gaffes are more than just perplexing. Examples abound that she might draw upon, but it would curtail the tale. She perserveres, and the path to the climax isn't overly complicated. The solution to overcoming Hades' bizaare powers is jarring in its irrelevancy, but we have to forgive Fforde for running out of inventiveness here. He's used up so much getting to this point.
Fforde's literary knowledge is impressive. He works in many points and debates, even if they have to be inserted forcefully. He pushes people into text and pulls them out into "reality" with real aplomb. If you're not into Victorian Literature, Fforde kindly weaves plots and characters from it into this story. Thursday recounts "Jane Eyre" for her distracted partner, and the Shakespeare debates are given full airing. Fforde's style makes the presentation tolerable, which reading the original cannot. It is that ability with language that overcomes what might be serious shortcomings in this book. Don't read it to pick apart the implausible events or stereotyped characters - read it to enjoy Fforde's talent as a writer. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Rating: 5
Summary: Brit-Lits and Bibliophiles, this is a must-read!
Comment: Finally, a fantasy novel where the world described is actually a literal fantasy of mine! A world where novels have replaced sports, movies, and television as the most popular form of entertainment: where proselytizers knock on your door and ask if you've found Sir Francis Bacon, schoolchildren trade Austen and Bronte playing cards, and "Richard III" is staged weekly as an audience-participation cult favorite a la "Rocky Horror". I LOVE this world, and all its quirks: 1980s England, in the midst of a 131-year war with Russia, where time-travel, vampirism, and jumping in and out of books are all commonplace.
Thursday Next is the name of the reluctant heroine of this book, dragged into a first-class mess when it's discovered that she once rebuffed the future villain Acheron Hades in college. After he's turned to a life of crime, *no one* can resist Hades (who has several other supernatural powers), so when it's suspected he's stolen a first edition Dickens manuscript with the intent of causing harm to its characters, Thursday is brought in to help stop him.
A host of secondary characters make appearances, from Thursday's mad-scientist Uncle Mycroft, to the wickedly delightful Acheron Hades, to the helpful and mysterious Edward Rochester from the eponymous book (also in peril) himself. The witty use of names and puns is always lighthearted, rarely dragging (as similar Douglas Adams jokes tend to be) and they never obscure the main plot. The in-jokes are numerous, but if you haven't read the books they're based on you won't really miss anything.
If you love literature, you MUST read this book - at the very least to escape to a world where everyone shares your passion.
Rating: 5
Summary: Great Book!
Comment: This is such a clever book! Fforde's style is fresh and original, his characters lively and interesting, and his writing apt and witty. I especially enjoyed the names of the characters in The Eyre Affair.
I look forward to reading more of Thursday Next's adventures.
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Title: Lost in a Good Book: A Thursday Next Novel by Jasper Fforde ISBN: 0670031909 Publisher: Penguin USA Pub. Date: 31 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Well of Lost Plots: A Thursday Next Novel by Jasper Fforde ISBN: 0670032891 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 19 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Time Traveler's Wife (Today Show Book Club #15) by Audrey Niffenegger ISBN: 1931561648 Publisher: MacAdam/Cage Publishing Pub. Date: 17 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse by Robert Rankin ISBN: 0575074019 Publisher: Gollancz Pub. Date: March, 2004 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, Connie Willis ISBN: 0553575384 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 December, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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