I'll admit I had never ever read Jane Eyre ...

Having just finished all 4 TN books this past week I thought I'd look it up on the 'net ... Went to wikipedia and read the summary and I had a "WTF?" moment when I read the ending. I re-read it again several times to make sure I got it right.

So ... excuse the stupid question but ... the whole joke in TEA is that the "new" ending is actually the "original" ending???

Yes, that's exactly right--the real ending is the one Thursday engineers, where Jane returns to Rochester. In fact, my personal opinion is that the book never would have become a classic if it had had such a depressing ending as it has at the start of TEA. Anyway, it's a wonderful book; I'm halfway through it right now and I highly recommend reading it!

Welcome to the fforum, by the way! Have some Battenberg and tea.

Boy. Talk about feeling completely stupid. Nothing like realizing the joke went the other way 'round ... ;)

As for Jane, I've just picked it up myself. Sitting right next to my lunch as I type this.

Thanks .. !

you think you're confused, i have just been reading Oranges are not the only Fruit and in that it would appear that the ending made up by JF in TEA was concocted by Winterson in OANTOF so altering the original Bronte version to the Nextian original.

AHHHHHHHHHH

Now I'm the one who is confused. OANTOF is a different book in which someone changes the ending of Jane Eyre?

yup,

OANTOF is a book mainly about religion and sin, the mother changes the ending to Jane Eyre from Bronte's actual ending and the one created by Thursday in TEA, to the ending where Jane marries Rivers and goes off to be a missionary, i.e the original ending in TEA but not in the original Bronte.

i think

ahhhh my brain really hurts now
(goes off to lay down in a darkened room).

Sounds interesting; I'll look it up. Hope your brain stops hurting.

Ok, add another confused party to the mix... What's OANTOF stand for? I thought Jasper's play on the actual ending of Jane Eyre was funny, but didn't realize there were others with their fingers in the pie.

Very interesting, how much intrigue the ending to one book can cause...



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I'm a god... I'm not THE God... I don't think..."

OANTOF stands for 'Oranges are not the only Fruit' abook about sin, in it the evil sin obsessed mother read Jane Eyre to her daughter, disliked theending when Jane left the drippy St John Rivers to come back to the dashing Rochester i.e the ending Thursday created within TEA, and coincidentally the ending also prefered by a certain ms Bronte. however in Oranges are not the only fruit the evil mother changes the ending of Jane Eyre so that Jane goes with the drippy St John. i.e the ending Jasper wrote within TEA before Thursday got her mitts upon it.

OANTOF is a good book but the part i talk about is only a really small part i just though it was interesting that in TEA the ending is changed to what we recognise as the right ending, yet in OANTOF the ending is reverted to the pre thursday Fforde ending.


AHHHH there goes that headache again, and the eye tick and the shaking and .............

Thanks for the info.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I'm a god... I'm not THE God... I don't think..."

Hi All - and don't worry omoikane - when I started reading TEA I was incredibly confused also - namely because I'd read Jane Eyre four or five times previously for studies...and knew the ending well.

When TEA first mentions the ending....I just looked at it and thought it a complete error....I mean, I knew TEA was set in a parallel universe but one in which Jane Eyre had a different ending was just too weird.

Of course - as you know - it all panned out in the end Fforde's ending gels really well with the occurrences in the actual Jane Eyre ending.

I've not read Jane Eyre but I do know the ending, I loved that the "new" is the "real", I like the Fforde phenominon that I call "Literary Retrofitting" I just watched a old Sherlock movie and I was amazed to see that Sherlock's brother really is Mycroft!