[thatboyaintright]

A good friend loaned me this book & I read it a couple of years ago. I'm getting it for Peaches to read; if it ain't in the library, I guess I'll get it off Amazon.

But if you've not read this, it is wonderful. Couldn't put the thing down. It is a little strange until you get into it, but it is a great read.

Here's a review off the Amazon Site.

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-In an alternate 1980s England, woolly mammoths migrate through the countryside, Tunbridge Wells has been given to Imperial Russia as Crimean War reparation, and the prevailing culture is based on literature. Due to her adventures in The Eyre Affair (Viking, 2002), newly married Thursday Next has become a media darling, but when an unknown work by Shakespeare surfaces, she is happy to be back to work. However, the megacorporation Goliath hasn't finished bedeviling her: Thursday's husband has been "time-slipped" and exists only in her memory. Further complicating matters, her Uncle Mycroft gives her an entroposcope-a jar of lentils and rice-revealing that the chaos in her life is rapidly escalating. So once again, Thursday jumps into a surreal literary world. This time, she has joined the "Jurisfiction" division and is paired with Charles Dickens's Miss Havesham, who has a penchant for leather jackets and driving recklessly. Absurd and amusing scenes take readers through discussions on theoretical physics, geometry, literature, art, and philosophy. Fforde not only tilts at ideological and insipid corporate windmills and human foibles, but can also make the naming of minor characters hilarious, as in the two unfortunate members of the dangerous SO-5 division, Phodder and Kannon. Reading this novel is like being at a fabulous party of phenomenally funny and wickedly profound guests. Teens will delight in the satire and wit.

[Riograce]

I've read 'The Eyre Affair' and enjoyed it, although I think his rendering of Jane Eyre herself was abysmal.

[thatboyaintright]

I've read 'The Eyre Affair' and enjoyed it, although I think his rendering of Jane Eyre herself was abysmal.

I think that is what makes it so quirky & a good read!

[Riograce]

No, I mean Fforde's version of Jane Eyre *the character* was terrible. I liked the book itself, and his original characters were great - well-drawn and intelligent and funny - but I don't think he even *tried* to get Jane's portrayal right. His Rochester, OTOH, was rather well done.

'Jane Eyre' is one of my favorite books, and Jane is one of British literature's greatest heroines. I just wish Fforde had drawn her a little more accurately in his own book.