#42: The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. The first Thursday Next novel. A clever novel--Thursday Next is a LiteraTec, and is on the trail of Acheron Hades, who has stolen the original manuscript of Martin Chuzzlewit. He attempts to hold the manuscript for ransom, after killing a minor character in the book. When he doesn't get what he wants, he goes for even bigger prey: Jane Eyre. Thursday chases him into the novel (you gotta read it to get how that happens) and kills him there, and changes the end of the novel, which is a big no-no. (Her change makes it end the way we are familiar with the novel.)
You've gotta be a bibliophile to like the Fforde novels. We listened to the 4th in the series on our vacation. I actually liked it better than I liked this one. But I think Fforde is really just writing the same novel repeatedly, and shouting out "Look at me! Look how clever I am!"
So, after finishing the Fforde novel, I decided to read book #43: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I can't remember whether I ever read this before, or whether I had just seen the movie that was out about 5 years ago. Anyway, I think it was one of those novels that I had started. And started. And started. But it never got finished. Well, now it's finished. No need for me to go into plot points or characters, and I am sure most of you know all about it and I was the last reasonably well-read person to have never gotten around to the classic.
I can say this: I liked Jane Eyre about a million times better than I liked Wuthering Heights, by Charlotte's sister Emily.
Currently reading: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson and The Spirit of the Liturgy by PBXVI.
Gilead is awesome so far, and is our book group's selection this month. I should be finished with it by Thursday. That's when the meeting is!!!
Who would ransom Martin Chuzzlewit?? Not me, that's for sure. May have to check out The Eyre Affair, though.
I did not like The Eyre Affair because I LOVE Jane Eyre, and I found it absolutely absurd that Fforde expected us to believe that a creative megawoman like Bronte couldn't have come up with a good enough ending to her classic and that HIS heroine's intervention was what redeemed the story. Maybe I'm being too emotional about it, but I just couldn't stand it. I haven't been able to pick up another of his books because I'm afraid that next he will have claimed that there was no Jo in Little Women and that the best friend of Thursday next had to be inserted by his genius of a main character, or that to make To Kill a Mockingbird one of the most important books in the 20th century was somehow his idea, or some other ludicrous thought like that. Yes, one must be a bibliophile to get his books, but that doesn't necessarily mean we will LIKE them. (Can you tell I feel a bit strongly about this? ;) )
Oh, Philothea, I love it that you are so passionate about it! Good for you!
Jane Eyre was not my favorite read, but I did like it.
Maybe if he had messed with To Kill a Mockingbird, I would have felt the same way you do!
Dear Mama T,
YES!!!!! Finally someone who agrees with my assessment Eyre v. Heights. Couldn't possibly agree more. And someday I will try to articulate why. But for now, I revel in the solace of vindication.
shalom,
Steven