Part detective novel, part science fiction, with a dash of romance and a dollop of literary history, Jasper Fforde burst onto the contemporary fiction scene with The Eyre Affair.
The heroine of the story, Thursday Next, is a Special Operative in literary detection. Next is used to dismissing as failures her uncle's many outrageous and useless inventions. That is, until one of his inventions -- which allows a person to "enter" any work of literature and wander around in it -- is stolen by the evil Acheron Hades.
Next must stop Hades from stealing original manuscripts and killing off the world's most dearly loved literary characters including Jane Ayre!
Fforde keeps his novel moving at a breakneck pace. Don't get too bogged down in the metaphysical implausabilities of the premise -- just go with it and enjoy the ride to the story's climax, where Next and Hades play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse inside Thornfield Hall, home of the famed Mr. Rochester, who anxiously awaits the return of his beloved, kidnapped Jane.
