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pluralstories2022-08-13 07:53 pm
lb_lee) wrote in pluralstories2022-08-13 07:53 pm
The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde (genrebender prose, 2001)
“The barriers between reality and fiction are softer than we think; a bit like a frozen lake. Hundreds of people can walk across it, but then one evening a thin spot develops and someone falls through; the hole is frozen over by the following morning.”
Blurb: In an alternate-history England where the Crimean war has been going for 150 years and pet dodo birds are all the rage, Special Operative Thursday Next has to protect Jane Eyre from the kidnapping of its protagonist.
Why is it worth your time?: It's pretty good. Though there isn't much in the way of body or mindsharing (the closest is when Edward Rochester enters Thursday's dream to warn her of upcoming events), it is alllll about the lives of fictional characters interacting with "real" ones. It's an entertaining romp. Good vacation reading. Also, if you're the kind of bibliophile who's tickled by a society where Shakespeare plays are performed like Rocky Horror, hundreds of thousands of people turn up for a funeral of a minor Charles Dickens character, and people go around evangelizing about the true authorship of Shakespeare, then boy howdy, this book is for you.
Plural Tags: fictivity and otherworld TO THE MAX
Content Warnings: contain spoilers; in comments!
Accessibility Notes: Available in paper, audio, and ebook forms. You can find this book just about anywhere; it's a library easy-get. It's also been translated into Dutch, German, French, and Polish (and presumably Spanish, since the third book was translated and who translates only the third book of a series?).
Misc. Notes (if any): First book of a series. (Seven books, at present.)
Blurb: In an alternate-history England where the Crimean war has been going for 150 years and pet dodo birds are all the rage, Special Operative Thursday Next has to protect Jane Eyre from the kidnapping of its protagonist.
Why is it worth your time?: It's pretty good. Though there isn't much in the way of body or mindsharing (the closest is when Edward Rochester enters Thursday's dream to warn her of upcoming events), it is alllll about the lives of fictional characters interacting with "real" ones. It's an entertaining romp. Good vacation reading. Also, if you're the kind of bibliophile who's tickled by a society where Shakespeare plays are performed like Rocky Horror, hundreds of thousands of people turn up for a funeral of a minor Charles Dickens character, and people go around evangelizing about the true authorship of Shakespeare, then boy howdy, this book is for you.
Plural Tags: fictivity and otherworld TO THE MAX
Content Warnings: contain spoilers; in comments!
Accessibility Notes: Available in paper, audio, and ebook forms. You can find this book just about anywhere; it's a library easy-get. It's also been translated into Dutch, German, French, and Polish (and presumably Spanish, since the third book was translated and who translates only the third book of a series?).
Misc. Notes (if any): First book of a series. (Seven books, at present.)
Content warnings
Also, Jane Eyre is treated as a great love story of our ages and Edward Rochester as a stand-up guy, so the ableism of Bertha Rochester does indeed come up. (Bertha DOES end up being the one who is instrumental in the takedown of the villain, though.)
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They are definitely among the least body/mindsharing of this catalog, but I feel the overwhelming fictivity stuff trumps.