Rating: 
Summary: The Best Book Ever
Review: The more well-read you are, the more you will enjoy this book. It's clever, full of puns and witty. It's intelligent. It's silly. It's got a super plot. It's got realistic characters. It has a bit of science fiction. And best of all...it uses Jane Eyre as a springboard for the plot.As a former English major, I have spent 4 years reading literature and discussing literature, spending time in the dining hall with my fellow bibliophiles debating some obscure point or other...and this is such a good book for true book-lovers. Trust me, if you love books and love to read, then this is the book for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Lighthearted and literary: a great escape
Review: "The Eyre Affair" is an oddball member of the "police procedural" genre, where a hero cop (here named Thursday Next) chases an archvillain; we must wait until the last moment to see if she can vanquish the evildoer. The pleasant twist is that the people in "Eyre Affair" can jump in an out of books. Thus, Thursday must chase her villain in and out of the novel Jane Eyre. To accomodate this, Fforde has created a slightly alternative universe for Thursday: a world similar to modern-day Britain, with a few facts charmingly skewed: the Crimean war has been going on for 154 years, people use airships rather than airplanes to get around, and the world has a general fixation with literature in general--manuscripts are worth more than gemstones, and so many people change their name to those of famous authors that they have to be numbered (byron01, 02 and the like). If you are a booklover, you will find this twinning of literature and thriller very amusing...a little less so (but only a little) if only one of those genres is up your alley. Regardless, Fforde is funny and efferverscent throughout.
Rating:
Summary: Literary fantasy
Review: Okay let me start out by saying that this book is not set in anything like our world. It is a fanstasy world - a world where reading is the national past time/obsession, where instead of supporting the local football team, people declare their allegiance to Milton or Shelley, where inidividuals preach the theory that Bacon wrote Shakespeare door to door. And to answer a previous reviewer, once you realise that it is fantasy forget about whether the science works or not and just go along for the ride. The stories hero is Thursday Next a literate, intelligent, war veteran (the crimean war which has lasted 150 years) who is employed as a literary detective whose job involves investigating crimes of literature. Which of course brings her into conflict with Master Criminal Archernon Hades who has obtained an invention "the Prose Portal" which allows him to enter books and remove characters, such as Jane Eyre.
Rating: 
Summary: For the Love of the GSD, Don't Read This Book!
Review: At best, this book was disjointed and jumpy in its plot -- as if the author was having a bout of hiccups, or the editor had dozed off while doing his job. The heroine (Ms. Next) is an unlikely character you can't identify with, which makes you like her less and less as you go on. In truth, she's a librarian turned sleuth with a dark (and even more unbelievable) past -- something akin to a cheap 1930's film noir detective mystery complete with B-movie actors. I only read to the end to see if Ms. Next would redeem herself but alas, she fizzled out like a dull soda into a disappointing denouement. The silver bullet? PUH-LEASE! I saw that coming from a mile away. Only the mad Mrs. Rochester was entertaining and her 2 - 3 pages of heroism put some sanity back into the book. Otherwise, none of the characters were remarkable, witty, or vaguely interesting. The only scientific idea Mr. Fforde, if that is the author's real name, provides with clarity is the conundrum of time travel. And even then, of the pages he pays homage to it, it's only a cheap parlor trick to save Next from an untimely although not altogether undeserving death (if it can spare future readers the pain of going through a sequel). The "science" part of this sci fi novel reads more like a cheap imitation Harry Potter book. Honestly, THESAUREAN MAGGOTS? Aren't they a bonus prize in a pack of Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Jelly Beans? I suppose the author thinks himself clever with all those names he came up with for his depressingly thin and transparent characters. But the author is creative to the degree of a child who can't tie his plots, theories or even characters together, which makes the book a dull, disjointed read. If there is a deeper meaning or purpose to this book, it is poorly and shallowly conveyed to its readers. What the heck was the point of all those Shakespearean arguments? Just so Mr. Quantum Leap could set it right again? That was SO predictable, and a complete waste of time and printing ink. I HAD to breeze through or skip so many paragraphs in this book because the author wouldn't GET TO THE DAMN POINT! But my point is this: you'd spend your time better reading Pride and Prejudice or Jayne Eyre. Hell, read the Odyssey in its original language rather than this mindless drivel. For the love of the "GSD" (global standard deity), you're wasting OUR time Mr. Fforde.
Rating:
Summary: A genre cocktail
Review: People who like their genre fiction straight, no chaser would probably be best advised to seek their reading pleasure in a book other than Jasper Fforde's "The Eyre Affair." Those who are more inclined toward mixed drinks, however, will probably delight in it. Set in some version of England in 1985 (undoubtedly meant to be a year after you know what), where the populace has a great interest in things literary (performances of Richard III go on pretty much like "The Rocky Horror Picture Show"), and the police force has a branch of investigators called Literatecs, an operative named Thursday Next must capture the arch-fiend Acheron Hades, who has actually kidnapped Jane Eyre right from the pages of the original manuscript. Along the way Thursday meets up several times with her time-traveling father, has an adventure with a vampire slayer (he's nothing like Buffy), and has flashbacks to her time as a soldier in the Crimean War, which has been going on for nearly 140 years by this time (in this England the Romanovs still rule in Russia, but Wales is a people's republic and Winston Churchill died in an accident as a teenager. America is apparently still part of the Empire). With its fantastic mixture of the gothic, noir police procedural, alternate history, time travel, literary parody, and an uncle who's the maddest of scientists, things rush along at a rapid, often hilarious pace. There's a loose end, which is apparently left to be resolved in the sequel. Enjoy. Notes and asides: a blurb on the back cover describes Thursday Next as "part Bridget Jones, part Nancy Drew, and part Dirty Harry." Err, no.
Rating:
Summary: A bibliophile's dream come true!
Review: Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair is a must read for all bibliophiles out there. It is a wacky, genre-busting novel that takes place in a barely recognizable era. The year is 1985 England and the aforementioned setting is the excellent backdrop to the story. In this novel, Thursday Next, the wacky heroine, sets out to track down a vicious killer and manipulator of respected literature with furious determination. In the midst of searching said perpetrator, she encounters some rather interesting takes of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. There are some interesting twists throughout the novel. The Eyre Affair is quite a wonderful novel. The writing is sharp, dialogue is crisp and the language is fun and quirky. There are some amusing stories regarding Thursday's time-traveling father. This is one of the funniest and most unique novels I've recently read. I suggest The Eyre Affair to those with a penchant for interesting and humorous literature.
Rating:
Summary: Very clever and very funny
Review: I liked this book more than I thought I would. Time travel and detective novels are not usually the sort of thing I'm drawn to but the dry wit in this novel made it a very enjoyable read for me. I may have enjoyed the atmosphere more than the story but I found myself giggling at such things as rioting gangs of conflicting art enthusiasts (impressionists against the expressionists) or the idea of seeing Shakespeare's Richard III as a Rocky Horror Picture show experience where the audience joins in for the battle scene. I'm sure this book isn't for everyone but it's impossible to describe and I highly recommend giving it the 50 page test because I know I was surprised.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it - unique concept
Review: I waffled over reading this for a long time, until so many people recommended it I had to pick it up. I'm not an old literature fan; I've read all the Jane Eyres and Mill and the Flosses in school, but they've never interested me as much as other genres, so I was skeptical. It was a very good read though! It certainly helps to have the background to recognize all the allusions Fforde makes to other works of literature, as at some parts I was clueless and had to consult friends who've read more extensively in the classics. Fforde's style does indeed come across in some parts as a bit intellectual and haughty - but I believe that's simply because Fforde is trying to style it to fit with the era of writing this deals with.
Rating:
Summary: A fun story, but tries a bit too hard to be clever
Review: Imagine, if you will, a world in which literature receives the attention and following that spectator sports receives in our world today. Basically, the "pop culture" of our world is focused on classic literature in Fforde's world. Baconians and Marlovians get into fights about who actually wrote Shakespeare's plays, and vast numbers of John Milton imitators hold conventions. Intellectual property is taken so seriously that a division of the Special Operatives (SpecOps) is set aside just to sort out issues of whether or not original manuscripts are the real thing. These are the Literary Detectives, or the LiteraTecs, and the main character of the book is one of them. "The Eyre Affair" is told from the perspective of Thursday Next, agent of SpecOps-27, working in London as the book begins. Thursday is a veteran of the Crimean War (which has gone on for over 100 years in this world, and continues still), and her father is an agent of the ChronoGuard. He tries to maintain consistency in the time-stream, and is usually successful. Early on in "The Eyre Affair," the original manuscript of Dickens' "Martin Chuzzlewit" is stolen, and we discover that a device has been invented which allows a person to actually enter the world of a book and experience it directly. These two plot points, at first unrelated, we soon come to learn have everything to do with one another. The villain of the book, a memorable character named Acheron Hades, has stolen the Chuzzlewit manuscript in order to wreak havoc on the story by altering it. Hades is perfectly evil, almost indestructible, and one of the most fun villains I've read in some time. He's perfectly happy to make mischief just for its own sake. The story works well overall, but what really made me want to read it were the details Fforde added to this word he created. Public Will-Speak kiosks which will perform quotes from Shakespeare when you put a coin in. A riot caused by Surrealists. And perhaps my favorite part of the whole book, a performance of "Richard III" performed by members of the audience, with full participation (and heckling) akin to what one finds with "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" in our world. This scene alone made the whole book worth reading for me. Literary references abound in "The Eyre Affair," pretty much ensuring it as a fun read for any well-read individual. Unfortunately, in parts Fforde tries a little too hard to be clever. For example, the naming of his characters got a bit annoying after a while, as it seemed that every character had to have a clever-sounding name. The main characters, Thursday Next and Acheron Hades, are prime examples, but far from the only ones. Secondary and tertiary characters with names like Braxton Hicks, Victor Analogy, and a vampire hunter named (you guessed it) Spike are only a few more. After a while, the "clever" character names became a bit much. Also, Fforde was more than willing to sacrifice a consistent story for his clever literary plays, as things which couldn't happen in a previous chapter suddenly did later, just to make some other clever jab at Dickens or Shakespeare. It was fun, but it didn't always make sense, even within the "rules" of its own world. There was an almost self-reflexive quality to "The Eyre Affair," as the book got near the end, as the reality of the story exists on several levels. At one point, there is a character trapped inside a Wordsworth poem, the manuscript of which is inside the world of "Jane Eyre," which is inside the story of "The Eyre Affair" itself. It almost makes the reader step back out of the novel for a moment and consider what they are reading and how they are interacting with it. Somoza's novel "The Athenian Murders" is the only book I've read to successfully pull off this sort of reader involvement, but "The Eyre Affair" does come close to it at a couple points in the story. I actually enjoyed "The Eyre Affair" quite a bit, despite its minor annoyances. In taking us into the world of "Jane Eyre" near the ending, it made me want to re-read the Bronte novel as we experienced characters in the context of their own world. Fforde's novel is clever and imaginative, even if it doesn't always make perfect sense. It's a book written with an old book-geek like me in mind.
Rating: 
Summary: INTRIGUING CONCEPT BUT NOT MY CUP OF TEA! (2.5 stars)
Review: Since JANE EYRE is one of my favorite books and since this novel got such great reviews, I decided to buy it. I have to give Jasper Fforde 5 stars for such a brilliant idea; an alternate reality in Great Britain during the early 1980's where people can jump into novels or poems (and, where characters can leave their existence in novels to jump into 'real life'). There are just too many other things going on: People traveling back and forth in time, the evil Goliath Corporation in charge of the country, wars lasting centuries, and the pet of choice: the extinct Do Do birds! There was very little character development (and I'm not counting the marvelous Rochester and Jane Eyre--their characters are already developed thanks to Charlotte Bronte) so there was no one I really cared about in this 'weird' novel. It was hard for me to follow this story, in fact every night I would have to re-read three or four pages just to 'catch-up.' I really don't want this review to be too scathing because the end of this story was just adorable; very creative--my favorite part of the book. Thank heaven that JANE EYRE finally had the happy ending that we all love!
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