Rating: 
Summary: Douglas Adams "Lite"
Review: Fforde attempts to pick up where, sadly, Douglas Adams prematurely left off. While Adams humor flies high in "the same way that bricks don't," first-timer Jasper Fforde merely skims the terra firma.The premise, an alternate Earth dominated by a pop-culture more attuned to Good Will Shakespeare's sensibilities than Good Will Hunting's, is truly worthy. Mix in time travel, an endless Crimean War, computer-less technology, humorous character names (Acheron Hades, main character Thursday Next, Braxton Hicks, etc.) and you have a formula for fun. "The Eyre Affair" is a decent read, but misses on several accounts. Fforde's female "anti-Bond", Thursday Next, is written in a formulaic way designed to accent her tough, yet puppy-dog nature. The result is Ally McBeal with a gun. You wanted to use the author's plot device of entering into the book to shake her until she snapped out of it. Another failure is in the actual writing technique. Certain plot points receive an enormous amount of build-up, but others are just suddenly "there", an annoying contrivance. This raises the "Aw C'mon!" quotient to dizzying heights, even in a loopy fantasy like this one. Lastly, while it is possible to write lunacy without the author's smirk showing, Fforde has his cemented in place through most of the book. It gets very tiring. It's as if poor Jasper was that kid in school whose act for attention has worn very thin. The "Look at me, I'm being funny!" pleas wear the reader down. For those who love humorous sci-fi with a big dash of the absurd added for extra measure, I would stick with the works of Adams. He's the true Shakespeare of that genre.
Rating: 
Summary: A Fun Read, Can't Wait For The Next Book
Review: Though my knowledge of literature is sadly lacking, I still enjoyed this book and the adventurous romp through English literature. The next book will be out in July and I can't wait to read it.
Rating:
Summary: Lots of Fun
Review: I will agree with the other reviewers that the plot isn't the most complex in all of written history, but it is also true that this book was engaging, entertaining, and very exciting. I think that, despite it's imperfections, it is quite worth adding to a library. I couldn't put it down after I began reading and I was glad to have a couple of days off to devote to it. I got a real laugh out of it. My only regret is that I whipped through it too fast!!!
Rating:
Summary: Fun, funny, very clever
Review: _The Eyre Affair_ is a very fun book full of crackling word play and neat literature references. The plot may be a bit unformed, but the story is a fast read and pure pleasure. It's set in an alternate 1985 or so, in which Wales is a People's Republic, but Russia is still ruled by the Czars, and England and Russia are still embroiled in the Crimean War. Thursday Next is a woman in her mid 30s, a veteran of a disastrous charge in the Crimea (it would seem to have been that famous charge, though 120 years late!), who has been working for a division of the government called Spec-Ops 27: Literature Detection. She and her colleagues keep track of literary forgeries and such. The whole world of Fforde's alternate history seems literature mad, and the book is stuff with cute lit references. Thursday's dad is also in Spec-Ops, but in the division which deals with instabilities in time. Thursday is also mooning over her great love, whom she left because of events in the Crimea. ... It is up to Thursday to confront Hades, and to enter the world of Jane Eyre with him, and find a way to defeat him. If this all sounds silly, it is. If it sounds ad hoc and full of improbable coincidence, it is. If it reminds you of The Phantom Tollbooth a bit, it does me too. It's in the end a very clever book, and quite funny. Acheron is a great scenery chewing villain. Thursday is a decent heroine. The plot doesn't really hold together, Thursday's romance is kind of pallid, and of course the premise doesn't bear thinking much about, but the whole thing still entertains.
Rating:
Summary: If you love obscure (and not so obscure) references
Review: I'll not repeat what others have already said, but this book is a great deal of fun. I don't remember the last time a book made me laugh out loud, but The Eyre Affair is worth the price for just one of its scenes (when Thursday attends the play Richard III). This book includes so many interesting references to other literature and history that even the minor shortcomings (the only developed character is Thursday) don't hurt the final effect. I would also point out that a background in literature will make this book more enjoyable (along with a sense of whimsy).
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful wild ride
Review: I laughed, I cried. I laughed because the book is funny in clever ways. I cried because I was reading this book on a flight from San Francisco to Frankfurt and I knew I was supposed to go to sleep but I couldn't put the book down. This book reminded me of Connie Willis' books, To Say Nothing of the Dog and Bellwether. They have that same sort of feel to them and yet I would not insult either writer by claiming one is derivative of the other. It's fast, fun, and light yet not vacuous. Clever without taking itself too seriously. Obviously the author had a lot of fun with this book. And I have the UK paperback edition which includes a chapter from the forthcoming book -- and it reads every bit as good as this first one. Go grab a copy, clear a couple of hours in your calendar, turn off your mobile phone, find a comfy chair and be prepared to chuckle. This is one of the best I've read in awhile.
Rating: 
Summary: Weird
Review: This book is just too weird, too descriptive with uninteresting wordiness, too bizaar for my taste, too far-fetched. I like a credible tale. This book has NO credibility, whatsoever!
Rating:
Summary: Tes, I think
Review: The plot is completely new. The theme is fascinating. I will need to read the original Jane Eyre.
Rating:
Summary: Lots of fun, but...
Review: Like previous reviewers I enjoyed this book and had fun with the constant barrage of odd-ball characters, book references, Shakespeare, time warps, and all the other craziness. I loved the novel mix of lit and tech and the idea of people literally entering a book is what prompted me to read it. It's a fun read and a roller-coaster of a ride.
What I didn't like were the cardboard characters. Fforde needs to work on developing his characters more. Aside from Thursday Next they were much too thin and one dimensional. I found Hades too campy, especially when he first expounds on his goals of being a rich and famous criminal. He reminded me of Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor in "Superman." A bit over the top. And Jack Schitt (okay, we all got to titter over that one) is too sterotypcial as the heartless, greedy, big business type.
From the blurb on the back cover Thursday Next (great name) will be returning with further adventures. Fforde could have used this and future works to gradually grow his characters and give us time to appreciate them. Instead we're bombarded with the new and exciting in every chapter.
I hope we will see more of Thursday but with some villians who are more than cardboard cutouts.
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.
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