The Eyre Affair: A Thursday Next Novel, by Jasper Fforde.
More than 150 years after Charlotte Bronte’s classic novel was written, Jasper Fforde calls upon Jane Eyre and assorted characters from works by Bronte, Dickens and others English works of fiction to weave into this humorous, action-packed, romanctic, surreal story for lovers of literature. I suppose those who take their English literature very seriously might find the plot too fantastic and irreverent, but I was thoroughly amused by it. On a long drive out of state (and back) I enjoyed the audiobook, read by Susan Dewadin and published by Random House, Inc., 2009.
For those of us who passionately love works of fiction and their characters, it is not too far-fetched to conceive that we might one day wish to enter into a novel or have the characters enter into our world. The heroine of this story is a sort of literary detective (special ops agent) named Thursday Next. She also appears in several other books, though this was the first written by Jasper Fforde in 2001. For more on the author, books, and grot (See the British t.v. series: “Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin” for a definition of grot), take a look at the website: www.thursdaynext.com.