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Wynelda-Ann Shelton

The Eyre Affair

There is nothing as satisfying as getting lost in a good book. Except, perhaps, when the aforementioned book lets you suspend all disbelief, get lost in a few good books on the way, and spend time in an alternate history. You can do all three in The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde.

Thursday Next, a Special Operative in literary detection, is the heroine of The Eyre Affair. Hades, the third most wanted criminal, is stealing characters from novels and killing them off. To make matters worse, he is stealing them from the original manuscripts which means that all versions of that book will change accordingly.

The book has several references to the known history of the world, with character names such as Braxton Hicks and good old uncle Mycroft. One of the best scenes for bibliophiles is an audience participation version of Shakespeare’s Richard III. Think Rocky Horror meets Shakespeare. Think side splittingly funny. This is one show that I would love to attend.

But where this novel excels is in bringing characters from another work into the world of Thursday Next. This is something that is often attempted, but not always done so well. In order to accomplish this with characters that are so well known (Jane Eyre and Rochester) requires not only careful planning but also a deep understanding of the work and characters being used.

Careful planning, because there are copyright issues. Fforde mentions on his website that he only uses books that are in the public domain. The works of Shakespeare and Bronte and many others can be used with out worrying about copyright infringement and the messy lawsuits that can ensue, or paying royalties to another after gaining permission to use their creations.

But there is another reason for using such works. The Eyre Affair is immediately recognizable whether you have read the book or not. Most people have heard of Shakespeare and his plays, even if they haven’t seen one performed or read one in school. Works associated with being in the “cannon” have entered into the collective consciousness of pop culture.

Their very popularity poses a different problem for the author that would use another’s work for his own. The characters in these novels and plays are so well known that many people will raise a fuss if they don’t act, well, in character. That’s not to say that Fforde doesn’t have fun with the books or the characters, he does. The original ending of Jane Eyre as posed in The Eyre Affair is something to behold. However, by the end of the novel the ending has all been sorted out into the ending familiar to so many readers.

The plot line has already arced, the characters been sketched. But when a talented writer sets out to weave those elements with his own, it is a wondrous tapestry for the reader.