717:), uses bookjumping and other devices to keep the BookWorld under control. The central and only crime-preventing force, Jurisfiction has jurisdiction over nearly all areas of the BookWorld. Once having volunteered for Jurisfiction, the applicant then becomes an apprentice to a chosen Jurisfiction agent. All agents are given an essential TravelBook, a necessary item for all situations. Containing needed Jursifiction devices and a link back to the Great Library as well as other popular works of fiction, the TravelBook also acts as a guide to the BookWorld and is password protected to each individual member. Agents deemed appropriate are also given the password to an unpublished work that acts as a bestiary and a research faculty for BookWorld creatures. (See
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children and grandchild still exist, likely due to
Thursday's son Friday Next being the eventual head of the ChronoGuard, and/or the extensive powers of Colonel Next himself). The elder Next does, however, remain at large throughout the time-space continuum, and still frequently finds time to visit Thursday, usually by stopping time around her so they can talk without his being arrested by the ChronoGuard. Colonel Next's first name is unknown to everybody but him, a consequence of his eradication. Thursday has two brothers, Anton, who died in the Crimean War, and Joffy, who is a minister for the Global Standard Deity (GSD).
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central point. In order to determine whether bookjumping into a book of choice is deemed appropriate or not, the book cover is either green, for "open", or red for "unavailable". At the top of the Great
Library is a large dome that appears to see a large forest like area below, with other Great Libraries in the distance; there being one for every language. The 26 basements, known as the Well of Lost Plots, hold unpublished works, although whether they are arranged alphabetically by level or not has yet to be discovered. Books which are not published are scrapped, and their text recycled for future works. The
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manner by teaching "quality" bookjumping, and bookjumping may be possible without reading the text aloud. In order to avoid potentially destroying a book's plot, however, one must be careful to avoid jumping directly into an area where the plot is occurring, although most bookjumps send the jumper to a place directly outside of the narrative area. A bookjump is characterized by a "fade out" of the character bookjumping.
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created by hidden tunnel conduits that are invisible in the book, such tunnels spanning distances between other books and other genres. Connections can be crossed and filtered out using "textual sieves", which filter out all incoming text. Junkfootnoterphones are the "spam" messages of BookWorld, frequently appearing in the Well of Lost Plots. News is also put over footnoterphones, which can be turned on and off at will.
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was set, and has some unusual characteristics, including missing wings. She is a version 1.2 dodo, and the DNA sequencing wasn't complete until the release of version1.7. Although initially
Thursday Next believed Pickwick to be male, she later turned out to be female when she laid an egg. Her noise
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On his website Fforde reports that the
Swindon Town Planning office, due to expansion and the need to name new streets, asked him if he would mind them using names of characters from his books. While Fforde seems to have written the page with his tongue in his cheek several new streets in the Orchid
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A variety of species occurring, the grammasite was a failed attempt to change nouns into verbs. Escaping from the experiment, their release resulted in a disaster, as they can contribute severe damage to a book. The known types of grammasites include adjectivores, which suck all description from an
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While bookjumping appears to be a given talent to all fictional characters, the bookjumping ability is a rarity in those from outside BookWorld. Bookjumping involves "reading" yourself into a book, appearing in the storyline at the point read. Such natural talent or ability may be approved in some
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The BookWorld is a fictitious and complex environment that acts as a "behind-the-scenes" area of books. The BookWorld is most likely "created" by what is known as the Great
Panjandrum, a person/thing that is thought to be of the highest of authority, yet is never present, acting as a god of sorts to
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While
Jurisfiction is given a large amount of power in the BookWorld, the primary legislative government is the Council of Genres, made up of a representative from every genre in the BookWorld. Ruling upon various issues and creating ordinances to counteract them, there is no official executive of
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Mass communication in the BookWorld is provided by footnoterphones and mobilefootnoterphones. Messages from others appear as footnotes in the text, the "number" of a footnoterphone being the chosen character's book, chapter, page number, paragraph, and line in a book. Connection between phones is
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Within the depths of the Well of Lost Plots, the Text Sea is the source of all text for all books, and is the general burial ground for all destroyed characters to be once more reduced to text. Composed of a random jumble of words and punctuation, words are "trawled" for using scrawltrawlers, the
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is extinct in this universe. Computer and aviation technology are far behind our own timeline, with the transistor having never been invented (computers are still massive and run on vacuum tubes) and research into the jet engine unfunded as propeller and dirigible technology are viewed as 'good
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Consisting of 52 levels total, the Great
Library acts as a lobby of sorts for the BookWorld and serves as a public gateway onto any book ever created. 26 of the upper levels, organized according to the author's last name, are laid out in a cross shape, with 4 rows of bookcases radiating from a
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Her father, Colonel Next, is a rogue member of the ChronoGuard (SpecOps 12), a temporal policing agency, and officially does not exist, having been eradicated by his former bosses (using the simple but effective method of a timely knock on the door just before his conception; despite this, his
738:
Adjective-creating creatures and maggot-like in appearance, bookworms act as portable thesauri, changing common adjectives into others (for example "nice" into "amiable" or "attractive"). Their presence is welcome in most areas, however, should too many infest one area, the area uses too many
751:
Although the actual language of the BookWorld is
English, there are also other Great Libraries that are apparently completely other languages. The actual sublanguages of each BookWorld, however, are regarded as fonts. Thus (according to Bradshaw's BookWorld Companion),
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The "engine room" of BookWorld, Text Grand
Central uses so-called "storycode engines" to observe changes in books and allow the reader to read books using a complex "imaginotransference system" to supposedly continue the images being created in the reader's mind.
520:, where she, her husband, infant, and mother live. The importance that literature has in this alternate England is reflected in the fact that so many people want to change their name to that of famous authors that some must be numbered, by law- e.g.
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If a character cannot or does not wish to bookjump, they will have to utilize a method of private transportation. The only such transportation known is that of TransGenre Taxis, a bookjumping taxi service that may be used for a monetary fee.
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is the librarian of the Great
Library, although due to redistricting in England since the book in which he appears was written, the Cheshire Cat is now known as the Cat Formerly Known as Cheshire, or Unitary Authority of Warrington Cat.
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Thursday also finds that the characters in novels are self-aware, knowing they are in a book. They make comments stating they are not needed until page 'such and such,' rather like actors in a play, and thus have time to help Thursday.
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is the traditional language of those in the support industries such as within the Well of Lost Plots, and Lorem Ipsum is the gutter slang of the underworld—useful to have a few phrases in case you get into trouble in Horror or Noir."
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have the names of literary characters that appear in the Thursday Next series. These include Thursday Street, Friday Street, Mycroft Road, Havisham Drive, Estella Close, Eyre Close, Braxton Road and Bradshaw Court.
524:
432. 'WillSpeak' machines are often to be found in public places, such as railway stations - these contain a mannequin of a Shakespearian character and will quote that character's most famous speeches upon payment.
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The Goliath Corporation is a megalithic company that appears to make many of the goods in this alternate world and also acts as a de facto shadow government, being able to take over important police investigations.
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the Council of Genres. Concerning judiciary matters, the Council has no control. Courtroom scenes across the BookWorld are used for this purpose, the judge and jury of each scene presiding over the case at hand.
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In addition, the line between literature and reality becomes increasingly thin, allowing characters in the books and those in 'real life' to jump in and out of novels. This leads Thursday to change the ending of
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The world of fiction has its own police force - Jurisfiction - to ensure that plots in books continue to run smoothly with each reading. Thursday ends up hiding in a book, and working for Jurisfiction. The book
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Most unorganized crime takes place in the Well of Lost Plots, due to its lack of crime control in that area. Such common crime includes illegal selling of plot devices, characters, and others.
588:. Thursday juggles her work in Swindon and the world of fiction, battling the machinations of the insidious Goliath Corporation, members of the Hades family and other evils at every turn.
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In the world of Thursday Next, literature is a much more popular medium than in our world, and Thursday is a member of SO-27, the Literary Detectives or LiteraTecs. Her work is centered on
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becomes the obsequious, and generally insincere character we know, due to an accident inside the book world, and Thursday's uncle Mycroft becomes
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called Pickwick. Although dodos had been extinct for some time, in Fforde's fictional universe they have been reintroduced through
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Due to the frequent instability of much of the BookWorld, a public police agency, instated by the Council of Genres (See
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is a detective novel featuring Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and his sergeant, Mary Mary, (listed as Mary Jones in
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Around Thursday Next a fictional world was created, reflected on several websites of the fictional organisations.
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the BookWorld. As the word panjandrum means someone in high authority, this reaffirms this possibility.
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object, and verbisoids, as well as others. Verbisoids can be beaten by irregular verbs.
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379:. As of November 2023, the next novel, Dark Reading Matter, is planned for 2025.
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804:– note that a code word (from the novel) is required to access this page.
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featuring crimes against characters in classic children's literature.
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explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective
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is a dummy text used to demonstrate layout. It is the only language
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invasion of Great Britain), occupation, and liberation. There is no
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can cause damage to local gardens if in their path, and there is a
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rights movement, given the resurrection of this kindred branch of
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adjectives and "flowery language", making the text unreadable.
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Website of the fictional city Swindon in the parallel universe
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Website of the fictional organisation Goliath Corporation
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equivalent of large fishing boats that capture words.
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is the independent "Socialist Republic of Wales". The
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describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily
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838:"Best librarian characters in fantasy fiction"
641:is represented as "plock plock" in the books.
16:Fictional character in novels by Jasper Fforde
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908:Website of the fictional organisation SpecOps
694:, may apply to certain groups of characters.
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891:"Google map of "the Nextian Neighbourhood""
53:Learn how and when to remove these messages
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361:. The second series is so far made up of
227:Learn how and when to remove this message
209:Learn how and when to remove this message
150:Learn how and when to remove this message
1109:Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron
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1210:Literary characters introduced in 2001
1057:Characters in the Thursday Next series
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399:department 12 (SO-12), known as the
88:adding citations to reliable sources
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686:. Specific newsletters, such as
34:This article has multiple issues.
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1205:Female characters in literature
1028:One of Our Thursdays is Missing
864:One of Our Thursdays is Missing
836:French, Emma (April 27, 2017).
370:One of Our Thursdays Is Missing
75:needs additional citations for
42:or discuss these issues on the
1215:Book series introduced in 2001
462:is still being waged in 1985,
333:, released on 19 July 2001 by
1:
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415:, however, was killed in the
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877:"The Nextian Neighbourhood"
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1240:Fiction about Neanderthals
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768:speaks as a young child.)
397:Special Operations Network
844:. Oxford University Press
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1235:Alternate history novels
1035:The Woman Who Died a Lot
626:Thursday also has a pet
403:. She has two brothers,
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280:In-universe information
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488:- a rare Version 1.2-
395:, a former agent with
352:The Well of Lost Plots
335:Hodder & Stoughton
1137:The Last Dragonslayer
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1220:Thursday Next series
866:(London 2011) p. 311
772:Real-world allusions
474:still exists in the
84:improve this article
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1158:The Great Troll War
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989:Lost in a Good Book
814:Dark Reading Matter
801:First Among Sequels
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446:(the mooted
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393:Colonel Next
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82:Please help
77:verification
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36:Please help
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1176:Early Riser
766:Friday Next
762:Lorem ipsum
522:John Milton
498:Neanderthal
460:Crimean War
417:Crimean War
401:Chronoguard
307:protagonist
293:Nationality
179:in-universe
1199:Categories
1013:Second arc
953:Novels by
786:References
725:Government
715:Government
538:Uriah Heep
472:Whig Party
470:, and the
383:Background
270:Created by
110:newspapers
39:improve it
974:First arc
848:April 30,
825:Next Book
747:Languages
734:Creatures
719:Creatures
648:Bookworld
580:Biography
532:Jane Eyre
509:enough'.
440:president
253:character
45:talk page
1045:See also
684:The Word
494:mammoths
490:Pickwick
432:republic
1052:SpecOps
842:OUPblog
779:Swindon
632:cloning
593:stalker
546:brother
518:Swindon
434:, with
428:England
305:is the
296:English
185:Please
124:scholar
1129:series
1101:series
1073:series
967:series
504:. The
464:Russia
454:, and
322:author
288:Female
285:Gender
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456:Wales
430:is a
413:Anton
409:Joffy
405:Anton
181:style
131:JSTOR
117:books
850:2017
628:dodo
613:and
570:and
562:WOLP
506:duck
486:dodo
468:Czar
448:Nazi
407:and
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103:news
483:pet
189:to
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