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Thursday Next #1-4
The Next Set
A magnificent presentation box of the first 4 volumes in the phenomenally successful, bestselling THURSDAY NEXT series. Your chance to read the first four volumes of one of the most thought-provoking and tremendously humorous epics in modern publishing. Join the quest in THE EYRE AFFAIR, where Fforde introduces the fresh and delightfully original literary detective, Thursday Next. With the wit and imagination of Lewis Carroll, and the ability to grip the reader from the start, Jasper Fforde has created a feisty, loveable heroine and a plot of such richness and ingenuity that it will take your breath away. Follow her adventures as she continues her exciting journey into the world's best books in LOST IN A GOOD BOOK, THE WELL OF LOST PLOTS and SOMETHING ROTTEN.
Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
507 people want to read
About the author
Jasper Fforde
51 books13.1k followersFforde began his career in the film industry, and for nineteen years held a variety of posts on such movies as Goldeneye, The Mask of Zorro and Entrapment. Secretly harbouring a desire to tell his own stories rather than help other people tell their's, Jasper started writing in 1988, and spent eleven years secretly writing novel after novel as he strove to find a style of his own that was a no-mans-land somewhere between the warring factions of Literary and Absurd.
After receiving 76 rejection letters from publishers, Jasper's first novel The Eyre Affair was taken on by Hodder & Stoughton and published in July 2001. Set in 1985 in a world that is similar to our own, but with a few crucial - and bizarre - differences (Wales is a socialist republic, the Crimean War is still ongoing and the most popular pets are home-cloned dodos), The Eyre Affair introduces literary detective named 'Thursday Next'. Thursday's job includes spotting forgeries of Shakespeare's lost plays, mending holes in narrative plot lines, and rescuing characters who have been kidnapped from literary masterpieces.
Luckily for Jasper, the novel garnered dozens of effusive reviews, and received high praise from the press, from booksellers and readers throughout the UK. In the US The Eyre Affair was also an instant hit, entering the New York Times Bestseller List in its first week of publication.
Since then, Jasper has added another six to the Thursday Next series and has also begun a second series that he calls 'Nursery Crime', featuring Jack Spratt of The Nursery Crime Division. In the first book, 'The Big Over Easy', Humpty Dumpty is the victim in a whodunnit, and in the second, 'The Fourth Bear', the Three Bear's connection to Goldilocks disappearance can finally be revealed.
In January 2010 Fforde published 'Shades of Grey', in which a fragmented society struggle to survive in a colour-obsessed post-apocalyptic landscape.
His latest series is for Young Adults and include 'The Last Dragonslayer' (2010), 'Song of the Quarkbeast' (2011) and 'The Eye of Zoltar' (2013). All the books centre around Jennifer Strange, who manages a company of magicians named 'Kazam', and her attempts to keep the noble arts from the clutches of big business and property tycoons.
Jasper's 14th Book, 'Early Riser', a thriller set in a world in which humans have always hibernated, is due out in the UK in August 2018, and in the US in 2019.
Fforde failed his Welsh Nationality Test by erroneously identifying Gavin Henson as a TV chef, but continues to live and work in his adopted nation despite this setback. He has a Welsh wife, two welsh daughters and a welsh dog, who is mad but not because he's Welsh. He has a passion for movies, photographs, and aviation. (Jasper, not the dog)
Series:
* Thursday Next
* Nursery Crime
* Shades of Grey
After receiving 76 rejection letters from publishers, Jasper's first novel The Eyre Affair was taken on by Hodder & Stoughton and published in July 2001. Set in 1985 in a world that is similar to our own, but with a few crucial - and bizarre - differences (Wales is a socialist republic, the Crimean War is still ongoing and the most popular pets are home-cloned dodos), The Eyre Affair introduces literary detective named 'Thursday Next'. Thursday's job includes spotting forgeries of Shakespeare's lost plays, mending holes in narrative plot lines, and rescuing characters who have been kidnapped from literary masterpieces.
Luckily for Jasper, the novel garnered dozens of effusive reviews, and received high praise from the press, from booksellers and readers throughout the UK. In the US The Eyre Affair was also an instant hit, entering the New York Times Bestseller List in its first week of publication.
Since then, Jasper has added another six to the Thursday Next series and has also begun a second series that he calls 'Nursery Crime', featuring Jack Spratt of The Nursery Crime Division. In the first book, 'The Big Over Easy', Humpty Dumpty is the victim in a whodunnit, and in the second, 'The Fourth Bear', the Three Bear's connection to Goldilocks disappearance can finally be revealed.
In January 2010 Fforde published 'Shades of Grey', in which a fragmented society struggle to survive in a colour-obsessed post-apocalyptic landscape.
His latest series is for Young Adults and include 'The Last Dragonslayer' (2010), 'Song of the Quarkbeast' (2011) and 'The Eye of Zoltar' (2013). All the books centre around Jennifer Strange, who manages a company of magicians named 'Kazam', and her attempts to keep the noble arts from the clutches of big business and property tycoons.
Jasper's 14th Book, 'Early Riser', a thriller set in a world in which humans have always hibernated, is due out in the UK in August 2018, and in the US in 2019.
Fforde failed his Welsh Nationality Test by erroneously identifying Gavin Henson as a TV chef, but continues to live and work in his adopted nation despite this setback. He has a Welsh wife, two welsh daughters and a welsh dog, who is mad but not because he's Welsh. He has a passion for movies, photographs, and aviation. (Jasper, not the dog)
Series:
* Thursday Next
* Nursery Crime
* Shades of Grey
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
April 18, 2008
OK—I really liked this series and was very disappointed when I finished the last book. For anyone who enjoys books, Fforde is expert in creating a believable world within the world of books. With that said, there are language issues in these books that have bothered me more than in other books.
January 7, 2009
Talk about tongue in cheek! I blazed through all four of the first Jasper Fforde stories about Thursday Next, his narrator/protagonist, but the first one--THE EYRE AFFAIR--remains my favorite. It takes place in alternative 1985, where literary detective Thursday Next pursues a master criminal through the world of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. This archenemy is Acheron Hades and Thursday has a pet dodo--sort of gives you a touch of just how ZANY these books are, but it's so great to be taken away into such a Mad Hatter's Tea Party kind of world. Fforde is British, and I loved how one critic called his work "delightfully daft"--it certainly is. It's necessary to read the books in order since they follow Thursday in time. Ah, those Brits--Thursday is like a grown-up Alice in a Wonderland where the Cheshire Cat is in charge of the Great Library. In order, the books are: THE EYRE AFFAIR, LOST IN A GOOD BOOK, WELL OF LOST PLOTS, SOMETHING ROTTEN (yes, with Hamlet), and the latest, THURSDAY NEXT: FIRST AMONG SEQUELS.
Fforde also started some books based on children's nursery tales, called Nursery Crimes; the first is THE BIG OVER EASY about Humpty Dumpty, the second is THE FOURTH BEAR about Goldilocks, of course. I'm not a fan of this spin-off to children's lit--somehow his wry sense of humor just doesn't work as well for me in this series.
I only give the Thursday Next novels 4 stars each, since they certainly aren't great literature--but as pure entertainment, they have delighted me.
Fforde also started some books based on children's nursery tales, called Nursery Crimes; the first is THE BIG OVER EASY about Humpty Dumpty, the second is THE FOURTH BEAR about Goldilocks, of course. I'm not a fan of this spin-off to children's lit--somehow his wry sense of humor just doesn't work as well for me in this series.
I only give the Thursday Next novels 4 stars each, since they certainly aren't great literature--but as pure entertainment, they have delighted me.
October 2, 2008
Great fun for anyone who has read a lot of the classics of British lit. Fforde creates a world that loves its books and takes them very seriously. Read the reviews on Amazon.com for a better idea of what it's all about. Fun and entertaining but not at all mindless. And I love the pet dodos!
February 5, 2009
I read each of these, but I found this book that has them all in one. Oh readers...you will LOVE all the literary references: The Department of Jurisfiction. Jasper Fforde is so creative and quirky. I am on the fifth book now.
Again, a perfect book for you, Carla!!
Again, a perfect book for you, Carla!!
January 20, 2008
If you like books, you'll like these books.
March 27, 2008
I adore the literary references, and the plethora of puns. Its all British humor and pure cleverness.
May 22, 2009
Very British and literate. I enjoyed it a lot in a Hitchhikeresque way.
December 21, 2010
Couldn't find anyone to touch Pratchett until I discovered Jasper Fforde, great stuff.
November 18, 2013
FORMAT: Audiobook
Jasper Fforde is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors and this series has added a great deal to my opinion of his work.
Thursday next is a book detective. She has the strange ability to 'read' herself into the amazing and not-so-straightforward 'Book World'. She lives in an alternative reality where the british government is partly run by a mega-corporation called Goliath and they wish to find out how to hone her book-jumpling skills.
This series was a laugh from start to finish. It's brilliance is not in is semi-science-fiction-fantasy storytelling, but mainly in its tongue-and-cheak puny retake on most of classic fiction.
If you are an avid reader (especially of the classics) the Thursday Next series is a must read.
Jasper Fforde is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors and this series has added a great deal to my opinion of his work.
Thursday next is a book detective. She has the strange ability to 'read' herself into the amazing and not-so-straightforward 'Book World'. She lives in an alternative reality where the british government is partly run by a mega-corporation called Goliath and they wish to find out how to hone her book-jumpling skills.
This series was a laugh from start to finish. It's brilliance is not in is semi-science-fiction-fantasy storytelling, but mainly in its tongue-and-cheak puny retake on most of classic fiction.
If you are an avid reader (especially of the classics) the Thursday Next series is a must read.
November 21, 2013
These are candy novels for the book nerd. All the fantastical systems and institutions that Fforde creates for his alternate universe sometimes get tangled and spill outside the reader’s suspension of disbelief, but who cares? They're creative and interesting, and make you chuckle, and the constant action makes you want to turn the page. Plus, there’s a smart, capable, female detective solving multiple crimes and puzzles in the midst of a culture full of book-nerds. Just enjoy it.
August 18, 2014
Esta bastante bien. Los personajes son más que aceptables, la construcción de la realidad esta muy bien (no te hace ruido nada a falso, sirve como fantasía inmersiva) y lo que deja a media marcha todo es la historia en sí que no termina de cerrar, de ser todo lo interesante que podria ser. Pero como pochoclera, esta mas q bien.
September 27, 2007
It's sugar for the book lover. How exciting to read of a world where thousands of people, instead of naming their babies "Brittney," are renaming themselves as Dryden or Milton or Shakespeare, and interfering with a book is terrorism that would send the community into a panic. Pure sugar.
April 9, 2008
Well, technically, I don't own the box set. I only saw it after I'd bought each book separately. I spent the first few seconds upon seeing the boxed set staring stupidly, and after recovering from that, hitting my head.
August 18, 2015
Slightly cheating, as it saves me from putting them all in individually. Good fun. Nicely written. Reread The Eyre Affair it to present it to my book club in September 2006. Some of them got the idea and enjoyed it. Others really didn't! Now reading it for a different book club.
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October 29, 2008Very good, funny literary fantasy/mystery, with time travel and jumping in and out of fiction, in a world where dead poets are pop idols and the Crimean War still continues and the Goliath Corporation watches over you, cradle to grave.
September 27, 2007
Fun, Fun, Fun- with more literary and other references than you could ever process!
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September 29, 2008Once again, my favorite SpecOps girl is on the case. Thursday Next is embroiled in reality and fiction in her "next" case.
I love, love, love Jasper Fforde.
I love, love, love Jasper Fforde.
May 1, 2009
Pretty good, overall - good premise, creative (included some fantasy/alternative reality ideas I'd never heard before, including some good time anomaly things.)
May 6, 2009
This is a fabulous series! The adult version of "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs", add some mystery and human struggle, a chance at love and a rollicking good time.
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February 4, 2013Read by ACRL Member of the Week Brittney Thomas. Learn more about Brittney on the ACRL Insider blog.
June 23, 2021
This writting is really excellent.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews