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Description edit
There is another 1985, somewhere in the could-have-been, where the Crimean war still rages, dodos are regenerated in home-cloning kits and everyone is deeply disappointed by the ending of 'Jane Eyre'. In this world there are no jet-liners or computers, but there are policemen who can travel... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Summary edit
An alternate time-line exists in 1985, one in which literature is the most important part of peoples' lives. There are John Milton conferences, an audience participation of Richard III (reminiscent of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show") and LiteraTec cops who search for wrongdoers in literature.... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)
Characters edit
- Thursday Next: Spec Ops Literary Detective
- Jack Schitt: Representative of the oppressive Goliath Corporation and thorn in Thursday's side.
- Landen Parke-Lane: An award-winning novelist. He once served in the Crimean War where he met Thursday and her brother, Anton.
- Bowden Cable: An SO-27 LiteraTec agent and Thursday's SpecOps partner in Swindon.
- Pickwick: Thursday's pet dodo
- Victor Analogy: The head of SO-27 and Thursday's boss in Swindon.
- Acheron Hades: Thursday's nemesis in the novel. He is her former teacher.
- Braxton Hicks: The head of several Spec-Ops units. He is very concerned about finances.
- Anton Next: Thursday's brother. He died in the Crimean War.
- Colonel Next: Thursday's father, a former member of the ChronoGuard, now a rogue agent.
- Joffy Next: Thursday's brother, a minister for the Global Standard Diety
- Mycroft Next: Thursday's inventor uncle
- Polly Next: Mycroft's wife
- Wednesday Next: Thursday's mother
- Jane Eyre: A fictional character in a novel of the same name. The novel is one that Thursday Next has read numerous times.
- Boswell: An Area Chief in SpecOps (SO-27) who is Thursday Next's boss. He is a puffy man whom Thursday describes as" looking like a bag of flour with arms and legs". He loves his work.
- Spike Stoker: An SO-17 (Vampires and Werewolves Disposal Operations) agent in Swindon; a former Welsh Guard.
- Buckett: A temporary until Tamworth gets a replacement; he is on edge. He usually works SO-9 antiterrorist, but owes Tamworth a favor. He has a child.
- Martin Chuzzlewit: A fictional character in a book of the same name.
- Kit Marlowe: An Elizabethan commoner who some believe wrote the plays of William Shakespeare.
- Milton: Followers of the poet John Milton.
- Mr. Quaverley: A minor character in the novel Martin Chuzzlewit. He lived in Mrs. Todger's boarding house.
- Dr. Theodore Müller: A henchman of Acheron Hades. Originally the prison physician at Parkhurst.
- Frampton: Janitor at the senior school in Haydon.
- Paige Turner: A LiteraTec agent who resembles Boswell.
- Felix7: A henchman of Acheron Hades who only has a week's worth of memory and is content to obey as ordered.
- Fillip Tamworth: Head field operative at SO-5, he recruits Thursday because she can visually ID Acheron Hades.
- Mrs. Nakijima: A Japanese woman who is able to cross over from the real world into the fictional world. She makes a yearly pilgimage to the novel Jane Eyre and always brings one guest with her.
- Lydia Startright: A reporter
Quotes edit
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“After all, the verses of Byron, Keats or Poe are real whether they are in bootleg form or not. You can still read them for the same effect.”
Thursday Next -
“If you expect me to believe that a lawyer wrote A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I must be dafter than I look.”
Thursday Next -
“I consider myself a spiritual man, Miss Next, although I am not religious. By spiritual I merely mean that I feel I have good in my soul and am inclined to follow the correct course of action given a prescribed set of circumstances.”
Bowden Cable -
“Each one of these little fellows has enough new genetic sequencing to make the code embedded in your pet dodo look like a note to the milkman!”
Mycroft -
“Goodness is weakness, pleasantness is poisonous, serenity is mediocrity and kindness is for losers.”
Acheron Hades -
“This is my sister, Thursday. She’s SpecOps and consequently doesn’t have a sense of humor, a boyfriend or a life.”
Joffy Next -
“How are you? I'm sorry I had to do what I did but you know how desperate we psychopaths get.”
Acheron Hades
- Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
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“Ignore forgive and concentrate on living. Life for you is short; far too short to allow small jealousies to infringe on the happiness which can be yours only for the briefest of times.”
Highlighted by 44 Kindle customers -
“Religion isn’t the cause of wars, it’s the excuse.
Highlighted by 41 Kindle customers -
Ordinary adults don’t like children to speak of things that are denied them by their own gray minds.
Highlighted by 38 Kindle customers -
“Don’t ever call me mad, Mycroft. I’m not mad, I’m just . . . well, differently moraled, that’s all.”
Highlighted by 26 Kindle customers -
Goodness is weakness, pleasantness is poisonous, serenity is mediocrity and kindness is for losers.
Highlighted by 25 Kindle customers -
True and baseless evil is as rare as the purest good—and we all know how rare that is . . .
Highlighted by 23 Kindle customers -
The industrial age had only just begun; the planet had reached its Best Before date.
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“The name’s Schitt,” he replied. “Jack Schitt.”
Highlighted by 19 Kindle customers -
“Why is a raven like a writing desk?” “Because Poe wrote on both?”
Highlighted by 15 Kindle customers -
if only scientists stopped to think about the possible effects of their discoveries, the planet would be a much safer place for all of us.”
Highlighted by 15 Kindle customers
Setting & Locations edit
- Swindon: The town where the Next family lives.
- London
- The Crimea
- Ohio
- Fairfax
- Wales
- Thornfield
- St. John Rivers
- Stratford
- Sessel
- Essen
- Budapest
Organizations edit
- SpecOps: Special Operations, government-run agencies/groups for various needs: Literature is SpecOps - 13. SpecOps - 1 is the equivalent of Internal Affairs. SpecOps - 27 is the highest number mentioned.
- Goliath Corporation: A worldwide EVERYTHING retailer who have become deeply involved in the never-ending Crimean conflict.
- ChronoGuard: Time Traveling SpecOps Division (SO-12).
First Sentence edit
My father had a face that could stop a clock.
Table of Contents edit
1. A woman named Thursday Next
2. Gad's Hill
3. Back at my desk
4. Acheron Hades
5. Search for the guilty, punish the innocent
6. Jane Eyre: A short excursion into the novel
7. The Goliath Corporation
8. Airship to Swindon
9. The Next family
10. The Finis Hotel, Swindon
11. Polly flashes upon the inward eye
12. SpecOps 27: The Literary Detectives
13. The Church at Capel-y-ffin
14. Lunch with Bowden
15. Hello & Goodbye, Mr. Quaverley
16. Sturmey Archer & Felix7
17. SpecOps 17: Suckers & Biters
18. Landen again
19. The very Irrev. Joffy Next
20. Dr Runcible Spoon
21. Hades & Goliath
22. The waiting game
23. The drop
24. Martin Chuzzlewit is reprieved
25. Time enough gor comtemplation
26. The Earthcrossers
27. Hades finds another manuscript
28. Haworth House
29. Jane Eyre
30. A groundswell of popular feeling
31. The People's Republic of Wales
32. Thornfield Hall
33. The book is written
34. Nearly the end of their book
35. Nearly the end of our book
36. Married
Series & Lists edit
This is book 1 of 7 in Thursday Next. (standard series)
Followed by Lost in a Good Book.
This is book 82 of 100 in National Public Radio's Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy. (authoritative list)
Preceded by Gardens of the Moon, and followed by Consider Phlebas.
Authors & Contributors edit
- Jasper Fforde (Author)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Country: United Kingdom
Publication Date: July 19, 2001
ISBN: 0340820470
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Country: United Kingdom
Publication Date: July 19, 2001
ISBN: 0340820470
Page Count: 400
Awards edit
- IAFA William L Crawford Fantasy Award (2002)
- Alex Awards (2003)
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: PR6106.F67 E97
- Dewey: 823.92
Subjects edit
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