The Eyre Affair

Thursday Next is a detective in Jurisfiction who investigates literary crimes. When the evil Acheron Hades begins stealing characters from the original manuscripts of literary masterpieces, thus altering all copies of the books, Thursday sets out to stop him. She jumps into Jane Eyre to keep the novel intact. While the plots are kind of silly, the attraction of this series, for me anyway, are all the literary references. The book is set in an alternate version of 1985 England, where literature has a much greater prominence. Their version of Rocky Horror is Richard III which is performed with audience participation. Baconians go door to door to convince people that Francis Bacon wrote Shakespeare's works. Thursday's interactions inside Jane Eyre are also fun to follow, as she sets out to keep the storyline intact and possibly improve it. Jasper Fforde also has a fun and interactive website for fans of the series.