“The Eyre Affair” by Jasper Fforde

I picked up this book at the recommendation of my partner, who is a big Fforde fan. It’s a really delightful book, I could see how it easily became a successful series. The story takes place in an alternate England where time rifts are common, dodos have been resurrected as pets, and the ability to travel within the pages of a novel has recently been developed.

The protagonist is Thursday Next, a LitraTec detective who handles literary crimes such as fake Shakespearean plays and things like that. When the original manuscript to Martin Chuzzlewit by Dickens is stolen, she’s on the case. Unfortunately though there’s no clues. She then gets approached by the higher-ups about how her former professor at university is now a master criminal, practically undetectable, and he likely stole the novel. He fakes his death and no one believes Thursday, who is still after him. His next target though, is Jane Eyre. Thursday ends up having to go into the novel, and slightly altering  the ending, in order to ensure its safety and get home.

Thursday is a wonderful protagonist. She’s bold and clever and dedicated to her work. She’s also a veteran of the war in Crimea with Russia, there’s a sub-plot where she works to stop the fighting and deals with losing her brother in the war as well. This book isn’t that old, early 2000s I think, but since it’s written by a man I would have definitely expected a protagonist like this to be male as well, instead of female. I’m so happy with the result though, Thursday is perfect the way she is.

I realized partway through the book that it’s basically fanfiction. With a really elaborate premise. Really Fforde wanted to write about Jane Eyre and Rochester in particular, so he came up with an original character and plunked her into it. It’s rather clever and honestly kinda cute. I’ve never read Jane Eyre in my life and while there are parts that assume a certain familiarity with the text (the fact that the ending is altered though the course of the novel for instance) I got through it alright. It is very clearly written for lovers of literature though.

The Thursday Next series has something like seven installments, I’m really looking forward to further literary adventures in the rest of it!