Overview of the Novel
In The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde creates an instantly heart-stopping classic, in which
an alternate reality exists containing a world that is consumed by literature and obsessed
with its protection. Thursday Next, the protagonist, is positioned in SpecOps-27, one of a
myriad of posts in a government organization called Special Operatives, SpecOps for
short. Acheron Hades, the antagonist, plays the role of the “evil villain” from traditional
literature, but in the most untraditional, completely original way, as is the case for all of
the characters and events that exist in The Eyre Affair. Fforde’s imaginary universe takes
the reader on a journey through literary history that leaves the reader questioning what
exactly is truth and what is, so to speak, merely fiction.
The novel begins with Thursday Next working in the SpecOps organization, only
about a decade removed from fighting in the Crimean War. Thursday is promoted from
SpecOps-27 to SpecOps-5, in order to be the advisor for the Chuzzlewit case, as she is
one of the few people in SpecOps who can identify Acheron Hades. When Hades attacks
Thursday as she is trying to get the manuscript back, a copy of Jane Eyre that Thursday
happens to have in her shirt pocket saves her life, as it stops the bullet from Hades’ gun
from striking her in the chest. Thursday soon realizes that her mysterious savior who
gave her the book and tended to her before the medics arrived was Edward Rochester.
From this point, the story quickly escalates into a race to save the Jane Eyre manuscript
from Hades and the beloved story that goes along with it.
Thursday’s uncle Mycroft has invented the Prose Portal, which is a machine that can
transport a person into the pages of a book or manuscript. Once that person changes
something in the manuscript, every single copy of the novel ever published changes
automatically to display those alterations. This ties right into Hades’ plan: enter into the
Jane Eyre manuscript, take Jane out with him using the machine, and murder her, so
essentially all copies of Jane Eyre will end with the line preceding the first mention of
Jane. When Thursday realizes this, she quickly uses her uncle’s machine to enter the
manuscript herself, but finds that Hades has already infiltrated the pages. Thursday
knows that she must protect Jane – without Jane knowing anything, since the narrative is
told in Jane’s first-person point of view – and simultaneously track down Hades and get
him out of the manuscript.
After an extremely difficult journey, Thursday tracks down Hades in Wales and goes
into the Jane Eyre manuscript after him. With help from Rochester to keep her presence
secret, Jane is able to find Hades and kill him in Thornfield, during the part of the
original book where Jane is at the Rivers’. However, Jane’s chase through Thornfield
after Hades results in the ending of the novel that is common to all present-day readers:
the manor is burned down (by Hades), Bertha falls to her death, and Rochester is badly
injured from trying to save her. Jane is brought back to Thornfield, only to find it
destroyed, after hearing Jane call out to her in the night, believing that it was Rochester
calling her back to him.
Jane returns to her alternate reality of a world, and goes to the wedding for her former
fiancé, Landen. At the wedding, a lawyer proclaims that the marriage cannot occur
because Landen’s wife-to-be is already married to another man. Like in Jane Eyre,
Thursday and Landen end up together and married, beginning their lives in the wake of
public’s reaction to the newly improved, alternate ending to a classic novel.