Lost in a Good Book (Thursday Next Series #2)

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Overview

The inventive, exuberant, and totally original literary fun that began with The Eyre Affair continues with Jasper Fforde’s magnificent second adventure starring the resourceful, fearless literary sleuth Thursday Next. When Landen, the love of her life, is eradicated by the corrupt multinational Goliath Corporation, Thursday must moonlight as a Prose Resource Operative of Jurisfiction—the police force inside books. She is apprenticed to the man-hating Miss Havisham from Dickens’s Great Expectations, who grudgingly shows Thursday the ropes. And she gains just enough skill to get herself in a real mess entering the pages of Poe’s “The Raven.” What she really wants is to get Landen back. But this latest mission is not without further complications. Along with jumping into the works of Kafka and Austen, and even Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies, Thursday finds herself the target of a series of potentially lethal coincidences, the authenticator of a newly discovered play by the Bard himself, and the only one who can prevent an unidentifiable pink sludge from engulfing all life on Earth.

Read Jasper Fforde's posts in the Penguin Blog

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

Tuesday Next, the hero of The Eyre Affair, is back in another ingenious adventure. In Lost in a Good Book, our delightful literary interloper ventures into forbidding classics from Edgar Allan Poe to Beatrix Potter. Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times described this novel as "part Bridget Jones, part Nancy Drew and part Dirty Harry."

The New York Times

It may be that Fforde has succeeded in doing for the anxieties of 21st-century book lovers -- nagged by the feeling that perhaps they aren't getting as swept away by books as they used to -- what Helen Fielding did for the anxieties of the 30-something single urban female. In attempting to come up with an adult Harry Potter, he may also have stumbled across that other Holy Grail of modern fiction, the male-friendly (or at least the gender-neutral) Bridget Jones -- which, for everyone but Fforde's accountant, is a fairly terrifying prospect. — Bruno Maddox

More Reviews (5) Fewer Reviews

The Washington Post

In the long and fabulous tradition of British nonsense, Jasper Fforde, though only on his second book, has already earned a place of honor. — Lloyd Rose

Publishers Weekly

Det. Thursday Next is back for another round of time traveling and bookish sleuthing after Fforde's successful debut, The Eyre Affair. Like his earlier novel, this one is set in the U.K., in an alternate version of our universe-one in which time travel is possible and the boundaries between life and literature are porous. Thursday works for Special Ops in the Literary Detectives division. She's made an enemy of the corrupt Goliath Corporation, which manufactures absolutely everything, by imprisoning one of its executives, Jack Schitt, in the pages of Poe's The Raven. In return, the corporation eradicates her new husband, Landen. Since no one really dies in this chronologically fluid universe, Landen could be restored-but Goliath won't do it until Thursday brings back Schitt. But rescuing Schitt is easier said than done-Poe's oeuvre is dangerous territory. Thursday enlists the help of Great Expectations' Miss Havisham, who works for the intra-literature police force, Jurisfiction, and the two leap into the pages of Kafka's The Trial, Austen's Sense and Sensibility and Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Thursday also finds time to authenticate Cardenio, a newly discovered Shakespeare tragedy, and save the world from being engulfed by an oozing pink sludge. Time flies-and leaps and zigzags-while reading this wickedly funny and clever fantasy. Would-be wordsmiths and mystery fans will find the surreal genre-buster irresistible. 12-city author tour. (Mar.) Forecast: Are there enough English lit lovers to send this book aloft? If the author is as funny in person as he is on the page, his book tour may increase the cult that began with rave reviews for The Eyre Affair. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Fear not, literature lovers! Thursday Next is back with another romp through Fforde's alterna-England, where books are followed as closely as we follow J. Lo, dodos are friendly pets, and it is truly possible to get lost in a book; fortunately, Next and her cronies in law enforcement will make sure one gets out before one ruins the plot. Picking up where The Eyre Affair left off, this book finds Thursday caught up in a new adventure that pops her through time and literature, including works by Poe, Austen, and Beatrix Potter. This time she must not only find a way to get her husband back from the clutches of the Goliath conglomerate but also save the world from destruction by a mysterious pink goo. Though slightly less buoyant than its predecessor, this is still a joyful read, full of puns, allusions, and sheer fun. Highly recommended. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/02.]-Devon Thomas, Hass MS&L, Ann Arbor, MI Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Adult/High School-In an alternate 1980s England, woolly mammoths migrate through the countryside, Tunbridge Wells has been given to Imperial Russia as Crimean War reparation, and the prevailing culture is based on literature. Due to her adventures in The Eyre Affair (Viking, 2002), newly married Thursday Next has become a media darling, but when an unknown work by Shakespeare surfaces, she is happy to be back to work. However, the megacorporation Goliath hasn't finished bedeviling her: Thursday's husband has been "time-slipped" and exists only in her memory. Further complicating matters, her Uncle Mycroft gives her an entroposcope-a jar of lentils and rice-revealing that the chaos in her life is rapidly escalating. So once again, Thursday jumps into a surreal literary world. This time, she has joined the "Jurisfiction" division and is paired with Charles Dickens's Miss Havesham, who has a penchant for leather jackets and driving recklessly. Absurd and amusing scenes take readers through discussions on theoretical physics, geometry, literature, art, and philosophy. Fforde not only tilts at ideological and insipid corporate windmills and human foibles, but can also make the naming of minor characters hilarious, as in the two unfortunate members of the dangerous SO-5 division, Phodder and Kannon. Reading this novel is like being at a fabulous party of phenomenally funny and wickedly profound guests. Teens will delight in the satire and wit.-Jane Halsall, McHenry Public Library District, IL Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A lively, pun-packed sequel to the Welsh novelist's debut, The Eyre Affair (2002). Here, his lissome literary detective once again prowls the mean streets and elusive texts of classic English literature. We're back in Fforde's Alternate Wales, 1985, when previously endangered species (e.g., dodos, woolly mammoths) thrive, the vast and sinister Goliath Corporation fulfills every imaginable need, and literature has replaced pop culture as the people's chosen opiate. As "Baconians" wreak havoc defending their favorite's authorship of Shakespeare's plays and Richard III draws Rocky Horror Picture Show-like participatory audiences, Thursday, a veteran of the never-ending Crimean War, finds herself enmeshed in numerous baffling intrigues. Her new husband, writer Landen Parke-Laine, has been "deleted" (perhaps by Goliath bigwigs revenging themselves on Thursday for imprisoning their op Jack Schitt in the text of Poe's "The Raven"). And Thursday, aware that "without entry to books I would never see Landen again," goes bravely off into bookdom-abetted and hindered here and there by her hardboiled partner Bowden Cable, her time-traveling dad, and post-centenarian "Gran" (condemned to live until she has read "the ten most boring classics"). Denied access to the normal means of entry to literary works (the Prose Portal), Thursday finagles her way inside such texts as Kafka's The Trial and Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, enduring meaningful encounters with such worthies as a bookwormy Cheshire Cat and an unusually extroverted Miss Havisham (from Great Expectations, of course). And, oh yes, Thursday must also deal with a newly discovered Shakespeare play (Cardenio) and a mammoth stampede. Just as shedid in Eyre, Thursday preserves the integrity of embattled masterpieces, ending up gracefully poised for the next forthcoming sequel (announced in an endnote), The Well of Lost Plots. Fans of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels should check out Fforde's engagingly skewed comic utopia. As one of his characters predicts: the likely result will be "paroxysms of litjoy." Author tour. Agents: Eric Simonoff & Tif Loehnis/Janklow & Nesbit

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780142004036
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Publication date: 2/24/2004
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 432
Sales rank: 160,424
Series: Thursday Next Series , #2
Product dimensions: 5.15 (w) x 7.76 (h) x 0.78 (d)

Meet the Author

Jasper Fforde

Jasper Fforde traded a varied career in the film industry for staring vacantly out of the window and arranging words on a page. He lives and writes in Wales. The Eyre Affair was his first novel in the bestselling "Thursday Next" series. He is also the author of the "Nursery Crime" series.

Biography

Jasper Fforde is the author of four previous Thursday Next novels: The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, and Something Rotten. He is also the author of the Nursery Crimes Series, featuring Big Over Easy and Fourth Bear. All of Jasper Fforde's books are available from Penguin. He lives in Wales.

Author biography courtesy of Penguin Group (USA).

Good To Know

Fforde's first novel, The Eyre Affair, received 76 rejection letters before it was published.

Fforde tells us in our interview that he got the idea for Pickwick, Thursday's pet dodo, from a visit to the Oxford Natural History Museum. "There was a stuffed dodo there and a withered foot and beak -- the only physical evidence aside from bones that they were ever alive at all," Fforde recalls. "I wandered for a bit and then asked the woman at the museum shop if I could buy a dodo home-cloning kit. She told me to come back in 20 years. That weekend, I wrote in Pickwick."

Fforde continued to reveal another fun fact: "The name of Thursday's husband, Landen Parke-Laine, comes from what happens if you are playing Monopoly and land on the first of the blue set -- a U.S. translation might be 'Landen Boarde-Walke.' Hence, his parents' names, mentioned in Lost in a Good Book, are 'Houson Parke-Laine' and 'Billden Parke-Laine.' "

1. Hometown:
  
  Brecon, Powys, Wales, United Kingdom
1. Date of Birth:
  
  January 11, 1961
2. Place of Birth:
  
  London, United Kingdom
1. Education:
  
  Left school at 18

Read an Excerpt

I didn’t ask to be a celebrity. I never wanted to appear on The Adrian Lush Show. And let’s get one thing straight right now – the world would have to be hurtling towards imminent destruction before I’d agree to anything as dopey as The Thursday Next Workout Video.

The publicity surrounding the successful rebookment of Jane Eyre was fun to begin with but rapidly grew wearisome. I happily posed for photocalls, agreed to newspaper interviews, hesitantly appeared on Desert Island Smells and was thankfully excused the embarrassment of Celebrity Name That Fruit! The public, ever fascinated by celebrity, had wanted to know everything about me following my excursion within the pages of Jane Eyre, and since the Special Operations Network have a PR record on a par with that of Vlad the Impaler, the top brass thought it would be a good wheeze to use me to boost their flagging popularity. I dutifully toured all points of the globe doing signings, library openings, talks and interviews. The same questions, the same SpecOps-approved answers. Supermarket openings, literary dinners, offers of book deals. I even met the actress Lola Vavoom, who said that she would simply adore to play me if there were a film. It was tiring, but more than that – it was dull. For the first time in my career at the Literary Detectives I actually missed authenticating Milton.

I’d taken a week’s leave as soon my tour ended so Landen and I could devote some time to married life. I moved all my stuff to his house, rearranged his furniture, added my books to his and introduced my dodo, Pickwick, to his new home. Landen and I ceremoniously partitioned the bedroom closet space, decided to share the sock drawer, then had an argument over who was to sleep on the wall side of the bed. We had long and wonderfully pointless conversations about nothing in particular, walked Pickwick in the park, went out to dinner, stayed in for dinner, stared at each other a lot and slept in late every morning. It was wonderful.

On the fourth day of my leave, just between lunch with Landen’s mum and Pickwick’s notable first fight with the neighbour’s cat, I got a call from Cordelia Flakk. She was the senior SpecOps PR agent here in Swindon and she told me that Adrian Lush wanted me on his show. I wasn’t mad keen on the idea – or the show. But there was an upside. The Adrian Lush Show went out live and Flakk assured me that this would be a ‘no holds barred’ interview, something that held a great deal of appeal. Despite my many appearances, the true story about Jane Eyre was yet to be told – and I had been wanting to drop the Goliath Corporation in it for quite a while. Flakk’s assurance that this would finally be the end of the press junket clinched my decision. Adrian Lush it would be.

I travelled up to the Network Toad studios a few days later on my own; Landen had a deadline looming and needed to get his head down. But I wasn’t alone for long. As soon as I stepped into the large entrance lobby a milk-curdling shade of green strode purposefully towards me.

‘Thursday, darling!’ cried Cordelia, beads rattling. ‘So glad you could make it!’

The SpecOps dress code stated that our apparel should be ‘dignified’ but in Cordelia’s case they had obviously stretched a point. Anyone looking less like a serving officer was impossible to imagine. Looks, in her case, were highly deceptive. She was SpecOps all the way from her high heels to the pink-and-yellow scarf tied in her hair.

She air-kissed me affectionately.

‘How was New Zealand?’

‘Green and full of sheep,’ I replied. ‘I brought you this.’

I handed her a fluffy toy lamb that bleated realistically when you turned it upside down.

‘How adorable! How’s married life treating you?’

‘Very well.’

‘Excellent, my dear, I wish you both the best. Love what you’ve done with your hair!’

‘My hair? I haven’t done anything with my hair!’

‘Exactly!’ replied Flakk quickly. ‘It’s so incredibly you.’

She did a twirl.

‘What do you think of the outfit?’

‘One’s attention is drawn straight to it,’ I replied ambiguously.

‘This is 1985,’ she explained, ‘bright colours are the future. I’ll let you loose in my wardrobe one day.’

‘I think I’ve got some pink socks of my own somewhere.’

‘It’s a start, my dear. Listen, you’ve been a star about all this publicity work; I’m very grateful – and so is SpecOps.’

‘Grateful enough to post me somewhere other than the Literary Detectives?’

‘Well,’ murmured Cordelia reflectively, ‘first things first. As soon as you’ve done the Lush interview your transfer application will be aggressively considered, you have my word on that.’

It didn’t sound terribly promising. Despite the successes at work, I still wanted to move up within the Network. Cordelia took my arm and steered me towards the waiting area.

‘Coffee?’

‘Thank you.’

‘Spot of bother in Auckland?’

‘Bronte Federation offshoot caused a bit of trouble,’ I explained.

‘They didn’t like the new ending of Jane Eyre.’

‘There’ll always be a few malcontents,’ observed Flakk. ‘Milk?’

‘Thanks.’

‘Oh,’ she said, staring at the milk jug, ‘this milk’s off. No matter. Listen,’ she went on quietly, ‘I’d love to stay and watch but some SpecOps 17 clot in Penzance staked a Goth by mistake; it’s going to be PR hell on earth down there.’

SO-17 were the vampire and werewolf disposal squad. Despite a new ‘three-point’ confirmation procedure, a jumpy cadet with a sharpened stake could still spell big trouble.

Lost in a Good Book 1. The Adrian Lush Show
2. The Speical Operations Network
3. Cardenio Unbound
4. Five Coincidences, Seven Irma Cohens and One Confused Neanderthal
5. Vanishing Hitchhikers
4a. Five Coincidences, Seven Irma Cohens and One Confused Thursday Next
6. Family
7. White Horse, Uffington, Picnics, for the Use of
8. Mr. Stiggins and SO-1
9. The More Things Stay the Same
10. A Lack of Differences
11. Granny Next
12. At Home with My Memories
13. Mount Pleasant
14. The Gravitube™
15. Curiouser & Curiouser in Osaka
16. Interview with the Cat
17. Miss Havisham
18. The Trial of Fräulein N
19. Bargain Books
20. Yorrick Kaine
21. Les Artes Modernes de Swindon '85
22. Travels with My Father
23. Fun with Spike
24. Performance-Related Pay, Miles Hawke & Norland Park
25. Roll Call at Jurisfiction
26. Assignment One: Bloophole Filled in Great Expectations
27. Landen and Joffy Again
28. "The Raven"
29. Rescued
30. Cardenio Rebound
31. Dream Topping
32. The End of Life As We Know It
33. The Dawn of Life as We Know It
34. The Well of Lost Plots

Customer Reviews

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Anonymous

Posted September 21, 2008

clever read

Very enjoyable book with a good mix of fun and danger. An unusual cast of characters with great names that will make you laugh. It is a fun trip through the past, present and future with all sorts of quirky adventures along the way. I am listening to this book on book tape, and the narrator has truly caught the personality of Thursday Next. What a great concept - to travel through books.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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The_Hibernator

Posted March 2, 2012

more from this reviewer

Punny

This is the second book in the Thursday Next series, and is every bit as good as the first. In Lost in a Good Book, Thursday Next must save the world while trying to rescue her eradicated husband Landen. Fforde’s writing is humorous, making for a quick, light read. Several reviewers said this book is darker than the first, which I suppose it is, though it never would have occurred to me. It has very little violence and given the nature of Fforde’s universe everything is reversible, so what does it matter if the attacks on Thursday are a little more personal in this book? I plan on reading the rest of the series, but I think I’ll take a break and clean the puns out of my brain before I start another one. Fforde’s humor is great, but I just can’t read punny humor continuously.
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Anonymous

Posted April 20, 2010

I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!

I loved this book. I couldn't put it down. I first read the Eyre Affair for my Literature class and I fell in love with it; so I had to get the second book in the series. I'm starting the third book in the series now!!!!!! Jasper Fforde is a genius!!!!!!
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Anonymous

Posted August 22, 2009

Second book in series

You don't need to read the first in the series though. The author will have you caught up well in the first few pages. I enjoyed the series so much that I had to run out and get all the books. It's great reading for a summer day or just to escape the everyday. A great mixture of Sci-fi and mystery. The mystery's take place inside of books. But the book's characters are able to jump from their book world into the three-dimensional earth world. The earth world outside of the books is England but with a very different evolution than the England we know today.
Alot of fun and very enjoyable reading.
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mobiusgrl

Posted August 1, 2009

Fun! Fun! Fun!

The Thursday Next series is great for anyone who loves literature, adventure, detective, British humor, etc. A great read!
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ReaderVA

Posted March 9, 2009

more from this reviewer

I Also Recommend:

A book lovers book

Book lovers will appreciate Fforde's many literary references. Great great!
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Anonymous

Posted November 7, 2006

brilliantly creative

Jasper Fforde has once again blown me away with his creative mind and entirely original plot. The Thursday Next Novels are awesome reads and they will keep you on your toes and begging for more. It's fun to read about the classics that we have all read and loved and be able to explore them in more detail. I personally didn't like Lost in a Good Book quite as much as I did the Eyre Affair, but that's mainly because I love being introduced to characters for the first time. It is still a very entertaining novel and Fforde's inventiveness is almost frighteningly blatant.
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Anonymous

Posted July 16, 2005

Superb!

I find Jasper Ffordes sense of humor absolutely refreshing. ITs quirky and very unique. His imagination is absolutely remarkable. This book was my favorite in the series for the creativity. This book is perfect for a book lover, and a great way to get people into loving the classics.
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Anonymous

Posted November 30, 2004

A Winner

Absolutely absurd and as such absolutely delightful. A wonderful experience.
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Anonymous

Posted November 3, 2004

Just Not That Great

You know, I really wanted to like this book. When I first heard about it, I was told it was a cross between absurd humor, which I love, and Harry Potter. Unfortunately, it seems that the author is trying to be humorous and insanely funny .... but just misses the mark. I've found much better books elsewhere, but if you like your books a little different while still conforming to standard forms of writing, go ahead wand read this book.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted March 15, 2004

Get lost in Lost in a Good Book

In some ways, this book is more inventive and carefree than the author's first book, The Eyre Affair. But it is just as fun to read and humorous as the previous. I absolutely love Miss Havisham and the Chesire Cat- or rather the Unitary Authority of Warrington Cat (read it for more about that). This parallel universe is so wacky, illogical, and hilarious that I could not help from laughing out loud. Lost in a Good Book is a wonderful read that does what a book is supposed to do- transport the reader to a different place and time. Now I just need to read Kafka's The Trial to understand a part of it.
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Anonymous

Posted February 9, 2004

Once again into Fforde's quirky world

It is difficult to explain a Jasper Fforde book to someone else, but if you say, 'Thursday Next' in a room full of people you may soon find a person or two who instantly knows what you're talking about. Quirky is the best term I can find for his books. It takes place in an alternate reality where science and unscience exist. A place where the big bad corporate guys rule, but they just can't seem to outsmart a low level government worker by the name of Thursday Next. Whether you are a male or female, you find something comfortable about her. She isn't too smart, too suave, or too safe. She just gets the job done as she slips into a good book.
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Anonymous

Posted January 21, 2004

Another great book from Jasper Fforde

Jasper Fforde has written some of the most original and entertaining books I have ever read. It is a quasi-supernatural detective thriller with bits of the absurd thrown in for good measure. Thursday Next's uncle's inventions alone make it a good read :) Definately read 'The Eyre Affair' first, or this book will make less sense. And once you've finished those two, hang on...'The Well of Lost Plots' hits bookstores soon!
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Anonymous

Posted May 4, 2003

A Sequel that Exceeds the First - Lost in a Good Book

At times I thought the Eyre Affair was too cute with too many oddities thrown in for a giggle's sake - a villain named Acheron Hades for instance. The second book, however, is a stunner. Now you definitely should read the first book first - there are too many things which will be puzzling without the grounding of the Eyre Affair. But Lost in A Good Book is so very very good (and The Eyre Affair attains excellence on my second read so it may have just been me) that I urge you to rush to your nearest store and purchase both. ----Both books are set in an alternate reality in which literature is an overriding passion of most people. Imagine soccer riots and you capture the intensity of the Shakespeare-Marlowe-Bacon-Oxford debates. Our heroine, Thursday Next, is a SpecOps 27, a member of the literary police. She is embroiled in defending herself (in a riotous Trial a la Kafka) on charges of having changed the ending to Jane Eyre (previous book) but also becoming an instant pop star beseiged for photo ops/promotions of dubious products/training videos for the same cause. ---Thursday loses her husband, jumps into literature, meets the Cheshire (now Unitary Authority of Warrington) Cat, begins training for Jurisfiction under Miss Havisham, protects her pet dodo and her egg, and in general, tries to set things to right and keep the Hades family and Goliath Corp. at bay. Encountered in the book are migrating woolly mammoths, artistic neanderthals, and a horrid pink slime which will be the end of earth unless Thursday can figure out who is responsible and change the time line. ----There is no way a review could ever do justice to the creativity and fun encompassed in Lost in a Good Book. I avidly await the third book which the author has promised that he has finished. Kudos to Jasper Fforde for a most intriguing, delightful set of books.
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Anonymous

Posted April 8, 2003

Get lost in this good book

Read the 'Eyre Affair' first! This sequel is as funny and as clever as the first. Fforde has a deft hand with dialogue and a great sense of comedic timing. All you former English majors, teacher and librarians and anyone who has plowed their way through the English canon, this is a fun, clever read!
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Anonymous

Posted March 7, 2003

Cheshire cat always smiles!

For those who have read and enjoyed ' The Eyre Affair', the wait is over. Lost in a good book has arrived, and it is worth the wait. In this go round Ms. Next must face some of the favorite villians as the last book; with some new ones thrown in, for good measure.Not to fear she's still with Spec Ops. The characters from Great Expectations to Alice in Wonderland was a very nice touch, and the Jurisdiction ( You will have to read to find out)is very imaginative piece of work, and quite humorus.
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Posted December 30, 2009

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Posted October 27, 2008

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Posted January 17, 2010

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Lost in a Good Book (Thursday Next Series #2)

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Meet the Author

Jasper Fforde

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clever read

Punny

I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!

Second book in series

Fun! Fun! Fun!

A book lovers book

brilliantly creative

Superb!

A Winner

Just Not That Great

Get lost in Lost in a Good Book

Once again into Fforde's quirky world

Another great book from Jasper Fforde

A Sequel that Exceeds the First - Lost in a Good Book

Get lost in this good book

Cheshire cat always smiles!