The Eyre Affair is the first novel in the Thursday Next series, a delightful and inventive blend of literary mystery, science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and crime comedy. The protagonist, Thursday Next, is a literary detective in an alternate 1985 (where the Crimean War is ongoing and literature is a serious business). When the villain Acheron Hades starts kidnapping fictional characters — including Jane Eyre — Thursday dives into the world of books themselves, literally entering Jane Eyre to save her while juggling other unconventional adventures