Rating: 
Summary: Great idea, too focused on plot.
Review: Wonderful story and utterly imaginative. But I wouldn't have minded more characterization and less focus on moving along the plot. Fforde's ideas are so original and impressive that I wanted time to take all of it in, to really explore the alternate world he creates. I wanted to get to know the characters and the landscape initmately, rather than know just enough information to keep the story going. I found this difficult to do, since ideas were thrown out quickly in order to keep the plot progressing. "The Eyre Affair" is original and intriguing - I wanted even more than what Fforde allowed me to see.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing- a literary parallel universe!
Review: Imagine a world where stealing a line from a famous author can land you in jail. Picture a place that considers stealing manuscripts from famous literary works as the most heinous crime one can commit. In "The Eyre Affair", Jasper Fforde has created this sort of literary parallel universe where there is a special police unit that specifically handles plagerism and other crimes of literature- "LiteraTech", it's called. Enter Special OPs agent Thursday Next, who's expertise of the written word, and her yet-to-be captured archnemesis Acheron Hades, lands her smack in the middle of a special assignment- who stole the "Chuzzlewit" manuscript? Thursday has her suspicions, but has no idea what she's getting herself into. In a place where there exists a group known as "Baconians" (who go door to door offering brochures to support the theory that Frances Bacon, not Will Shakespeare, penned all those famous sonnets and plays), and where you can get stuck in a "time aggregation" (caught outside the "herenow"- 60 years can be added to your life in less than a minute), anything can happen.
This is fantastical fiction at it's best. Each chapter begins with a quote from some ficticious piece of work (such as "Thursday Next- A Biography" and "Degeneracy for Pleasure and Profit" by Acheron Hades)that gives an extra-added flavor to Fforde's genius work. You'll want to reread this once you're finished (and perhaps find out how you, too, can be the proud owner of a pet dodo bird!). Pass this gem on to your friends- a superb blend of mystery, irony, and even a little bit Sci-Fi, it's too much fun not to share.
Rating:
Summary: So good it made me write my first amazon review ever
Review: The most enjoyable book I have read in recent memory. I could not put the book down. When it ended I wanted more - I can't wait for the next of the series to be released.Don't read this book to have any of life's questions answered, read this book for the joy of reading. I have never written a review before and it is testamount to the book that I have taken the time. Throw this novel into your cart - you will not regret it.
Rating:
Summary: Different, and fun.
Review: Certainly, I haven't read a book like this in some time. It's the kind of book that you give to your friends and say, "Hey, why don't ya check this out?"
I wanted a change of pace, something outside of my normal reading habits. Instead of reading psychological suspense thrillers, Oprah Book Club Picks, Pen/Faulkner award winners, National Book...you get the idea, I wanted to step outside the box. (I was also reading some fluff too, but don't tell anyone.) I happened upon this book, and didn't want to let go. I read it in a week, and was so happy with the creativity that I visited the web sites that go along with the book. The whole experience made reading fun, and I will be looking forward to the next Thursday Next novel.
Rating:
Summary: The Most Entertaining Read I've Read -- Ever -- Period
Review: Fforde has packed everything but the kitchen sink into this mystery/thriller/fantasy/caper/whatchmacallit, and it works like gangbusters. Time-travel, mad inventions, literary allusions, camp characters, romance, vampire hunters, Jane Eyre, and a really, really great car. It's all over way too fast. You just gotta love it!
Rating:
Summary: Go read this fab book!
Review: This is a great book that I wanted to read again as soon as I had finished! Once you start on the adventure it is very difficult to leave and I just wanted to keep on reading and reading.
I loved the characters - not only the fab Thursday Next and her pet dodo but also suppporting roles like Bowden Cable, Braxton Hicks, Felix8, the wonderfully evil Acheron Hades and of course Mr Edward Rochester. The whole story is a funny and clever mix of our world and a world of books and literature, with plenty of hilarious jokes, some illuminating ideas and a whole lot of fun. I found myself laughing out loud at times and giggling to myself at others. The author loves to play with words and names and great fun can be had spotting the gags and allusions. There are also, should you wish to see them, some serious undertones but they seem to be there for your own interpretation.
If you like adventure, literature, inspiration, humour, Shakespeare, dodos, Dickens, Wordsworth, prose portals, theatre, the Crimean war, films, cars, airships, detectives, Swindon, Bronte, books, inspiration and fun - then you should read this!
Rating: 
Summary: Am I the only one defensive about what he did with Eyre?
Review: As a fan of Jane Eyre, I was looking forward to this book. I found the concept very interesting and delightful. I would love to live in a world where literature held such value. However, the book was a bit too long. I think he took a while getting to the thick of the story. I don't think there was enough character development, and the villainous characters were almost too hokey to be taken too seriously. But I was SO UPSET over Fforde's treatment of Jane Eyre. Are we Bronte lovers really supposed to grasp his notion that Charlotte Bronte herself would not have written the ending of Jane Eyre as she had and that a rather unsatisfying ending was her initial intention? Are we really supposed to be satisfied with the turn of the events for Jane and Rochester being brought about the way he described? I didn't find it amusing at all. I found the ending painful to read! It pretty much ruined the rest of the book for me, even though there was much about it that I initially liked. It's like eating a new, delightful dessert, only to get an aftertaste of rotten eggs at the end. If you LOVE Jane Eyre, I would prepare myself before reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: Best of the Best
Review: The Eyre Affair is a brilliant masterpiece that ranks up with its counterpart, Jane Eyre, as well as Harry Potter and David Copperfield. The style is so clever, the wordplay genius, the plot terrifying, captivating, and original. With wit and originality, Jasper Fforde was able to create a surreal yesterday.
The story follows Thursday Next, who lives in a 1980's England with a regenerated dodo (without wings) and works as a LiteraTec (one who helps to maintain books, particularly old manuscripts of novels/plays by Chalres Dickens and Shakespeare) in SpecOps (divided into thirty or so divisions, it is more or less the police force). She is a thirty-something veterean from the Crimea War, an ongoing battle between England and Russia, who had lost her brother in that war, and something more. Living in a world where time travel is possible (her father was in ChronoGuard, a SpecOps division, and is now rogue, bouncing throughout time to visit Thursday every once in a while), mammoths migrate, and werewolfs hunt down vampires, Thursday also has to deal with the antagonist, Acheron Hades.
An unprincipled villian, Hades nabs Thursday's uncle and aunt, steals the original Martin Chuzzlewhit manuscript, and, with Thursday's uncle's help, kills a minor character in that novel. Insistent upon wreaking havoc simply because he can, Hades then decides to kill Jane Eyre herself, completely remove her from the original manuscript, and thus from every copy of the book worldwide. It is up to Thursday to stop him.
This book has something for everyone. Scifi and fantasy, mystery, romance, and some portions of history, the writing and creativity makes this book a must have. The story begins by simply thrusting you into the world, so you have to continue with it for a few chapters, and not make your decision after the first two pages. A captivating read and particularly well-researched on the Jane Eyre parts.
Rating:
Summary: An attempt at clever
Review: Unfortunetly the plot of the book did not start until midway into the book. The last 1/4 of the book was pretty decent; it was a clever idea for a novel yet somehow it didn't come out right. The acutal "Eyre Affair" wasnt as main a part of the book as you would expect. The first half of the book was slow paced background that had little pertience to the plot. To make the book better, Fforde should have expanded the Jane Eyre part of the novel and perhaps made Thursday Next's stay in Eyre-land longer with more episodes. I just was amazed that the title had little to do with the book. I expected more from this book because the unique plot line appealed to me.
Rating:
Summary: I loved it!
Review: SpecOps officer Thursday Next is living the relatively quite life of a Literary Detective in 1985 Great Britain, when things begin to get really weird. I mean, as if zealous Baconians trying to prove that Shakespeare didn't write the plays attributed to him and the Crimean War entering its 131st year weren't strange enough, Thursday is pulled into an attempt to arrest Acheron Hades, the third most wanted man in Britain. No camera can capture his likeness, and he has killed every Special Operations agent sent against him. But, there's one person who can just maybe defeat him, and that's Thursday Next!
OK, the above description probably doesn't help you much, I mean, what is up with the world of this story? Well, as the cover makes crystal clear, this is a surreal world where literature is embraced, stolen, forged, and treated like the greatest treasure on Earth! I must say, that I found it to be refreshingly different. This is a world that you will have to really work to wrap your mind around, but it is well worth it!
As for the rest of the story, I must say that I found the characters to be quite interesting, particularly Ms. Next and Edward Rochester (yep, him from Jane Eyre). Also, I found that the story held together quite well and was quite gripping to boot! Overall, I must say that I loved it! So, if you want to read a fascinating and quite different sort of book, then I highly suggest that you get this one. I give it my highest recommendations.
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