Dear Bookworms,
In The Eyre Affair, the first novel of Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series, we readers are introduced to a brand new class of detective: Literary Detective. Fforde takes us on a journey with his charming heroine Thursday as she navigates a world in which book-related crime is a daily occurrence and literary enthusiasm is a given for the general populace. In this second book, Lost in a Good Book, he takes us even further.
Literary references abound in this novel, as Thursday discovers entrance to a universe where all books ever written take on a life of their own. She learns not only how to navigate her way across the Book World, but to do her part in protecting its integrity as a member of the literary-policing organization Jurisfiction.
Following Ms. Next is an adventure that is at times confusing and bewildering, but it is her level-headed relatability that keeps you invested as she navigates complications in the Book World and timeline rifts in her own world all the while trying to chase down a copy of Shakespeare’s long-lost play Cardenio, deal with inexplicable cases of extreme coincidence and, oh, help her time-traveling father save the world from imminent doom.
Admittedly, for those who are as dedicated to literature as Thursday and myself, there is a terrible risk of spoilers in this series. Consequently, I have provided here a list of the books you’ll want to be familiar with going into Lost in a Good Book.
Please note that this list does not cover all materials mentioned in this book, as that list would be extremely long indeed, but only those that are crucial to the plotline of this novel or have some kind of spoiler mentioned.
Some series consist of novels which contain a common thread but can be read largely independently from one another. This is not one of those series. Fforde’s fantastical imagination builds upon his characters and setting from book to book and consequently, all book recommendations listed for the previous novels are excluded from this list.
What to Read Before Reading Lost in a Good Book
* A healthy knowledge of the works of Shakespeare is recommended for this series. References to many of his works appear throughout.
1 = Significant spoilers and/or pertinence to the plot of this book.
- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
- “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe
- The Trial by Franz Kafka
- Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
- Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
2 = References that reveal something about the classic but do not affect the plot of this book.
- David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
- Tess of the d’Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy
- The Tale of the Flopsey Bunnies by Beatrix Potter
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
3 = Minor remarks that probably won’t spoil too much.
- Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
- Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
- Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
- The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
- Kidnapped / Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson
Know of any spoilers that I missed? Leave a comment below and let me know!
Keep reading!
Live, Love, Learn