# The Eyre Affair

By Jasper Fforde · Thursday Next, book 1

Profile: https://hahafiction.com/books/the-eyre-affair-f43283a1/

Literary detective Thursday Next works in a version of 1985 Britain where books inspire the kind of devotion usually reserved for celebrities. When a criminal steals Jane Eyre from her own novel, Thursday must follow him into fiction to protect the story.

## What makes it funny?

Thursday describes time travel in the practical language of employment benefits: temporal police can retire to whichever era they prefer. Her father literally stops clocks, while she worries about transfers and promotion in literary law enforcement.

### The comedy at work

Fforde gives impossible events a familiar administrative setting. Thursday takes her job seriously even when it concerns fictional people, and classic literature has become mass entertainment, complete with author trading cards.

### Try this if…

Bookish jokes reward an interest in classic literature, while the investigation gives the fantasy a clear pursuit. Readers who enjoy wandering through an invented society may welcome the episodic structure; Publishers Weekly found that it sometimes slows the action.

### Good to know

The silliness includes a more painful thread: Thursday remembers combat and deaths in the Crimean War, which is still being fought in this Britain. The opening also contains profanity.

## What to expect

- Genre: Fantasy · Historical · Mystery · Science fiction
- On the shelf: Alternate history · Private eye & detective
- Kind of humor: Absurdism · Dry wit · Wordplay
- Format: Novel
- Length: 400 pages
- Audiobook: 12 hr 13 min

## A few distinguishing details

- A detective who can enter a novel
- Time travel with employment benefits
- Classic literature as popular entertainment

## Sources & further reading

- Reading sample: [Opening excerpt](https://www.readinggroupguides.com/reviews/the-eyre-affair/excerpt)
- Publisher: [Publisher](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/286439/the-eyre-affair-by-jasper-fforde)
- Review: [Publishers Weekly review](https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780670030644)
- Book information: [Apple Books audiobook](https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/the-eyre-affair-a-thursday-next-novel-unabridged/id1418922363)