Cover of The Eyre Affair

The Eyre Affair

  • 2001 first published
  • 380 pages
  • ★ 3.7 (29 ratings)
  • 32 editions

Jasper Fforde and Roxane Azimi's The Eyre Affair (2001) is an alternate history and historical fiction novel. The story is set in Wales. Characters include Thursday Next and Brontë Charlotte / Jane Eyre. It deals with books and reading, Thursday Next, women detectives and fathers and daughters.

Open Library readers give it an average of 3.7 out of 5 from 29 ratings, and 77 more have it on their want-to-read list. It has been published in 32 editions across 3 languages.

It runs to roughly 380 pages — 6–7 hours of reading at an average pace.

About The Eyre Affair

The Eyre Affair Great Britain circa 1985: time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. Baconians are trying to convince the world that Francis Bacon really wrote Shakespeare, there are riots between the Surrealists and Impressionists, and thousands of men are named John Milton, an homage to the real Milton and a very confusing situation for the police. Amidst all this, Acheron Hades, Third Most Wanted Man In the World, steals the original manuscript of Martin Chuzzlewit and kills a minor character, who then disappears from every volume of the novel ever printed! But that's just a prelude . . . Hades' real target is the beloved Jane Eyre, and it's not long before he plucks her from the pages of Bronte's novel. Enter Thursday Next. She's the Special Operative's renowned literary detective, and she drives a Porsche. With the help of her uncle Mycroft's Prose Portal, Thursday enters the novel to rescue Jane Eyre from this heinous act of literary homicide. It's tricky business, all these interlopers running about Thornfield, and deceptions run rampant as their paths cross with Jane, Rochester, and Miss Fairfax. Can Thursday save Jane Eyre and Bronte's masterpiece? And what of the Crimean War? Will it ever end? And what about those annoying black holes that pop up now and again, sucking things into time-space voids . . .
Description from Open Library

Themes, setting & tropes

Genres

Setting

Characters

  • Thursday Next
  • Brontë Charlotte / Jane Eyre

Subjects

  • Books and reading
  • Thursday Next
  • Crimean War, 1853-1856
  • Women detectives
  • Fathers and daughters
  • Censorship
  • Characters and characteristics in literature
  • Historical
  • Contemporary fantasy
  • England
  • Next, thursday
  • Kriminalfall
  • Farce
  • Phantasiewelt
  • Literarische Gestalt
  • Manuskript

Quick answers

Who wrote The Eyre Affair?

The Eyre Affair was written by Jasper Fforde and Roxane Azimi and first published in 2001.

What genre is The Eyre Affair?

It is usually shelved as Alternate History and Historical Fiction.

How long is The Eyre Affair?

The median edition has 380 pages, about 6–7 hours of reading at 250 words per minute.

What books are similar to The Eyre Affair?

Readers who like it often enjoy Sharpe's Tiger, Life After Life and The Guns of the South.

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