The Well of Lost Plots
Encyclopedia
The Well of Lost Plots is the third book by Jasper Fforde
and the continuation of the adventures of literary detective Thursday Next
from The Eyre Affair
and Lost in a Good Book
. Published in 2003, the book is set entirely within the jurisdiction of JurisFiction, the police force of fiction
.
-27 operative Thursday Next is taking a much-needed vacation inside Caversham Heights, a never-published detective novel inside the Well of Lost Plots, while waiting for her child to be born (she's pregnant although her husband Landen was erased from existence by the ChronoGuard in the previous book). As a cover, she must pretend to be the character she is replacing. In the book, she encounters two Generics, students of St Tabularasa's who have yet to be assigned to a book, and DCI Jack Spratt, a detective who partners with her in investigating a murder. Since Thursday is an "Outlander", a "real" person rather than a fictional character, Spratt hopes that she will help them appeal to the Council of Genres to prevent the disassembling of Caversham Heights, a fate inevitable for books which languish unpublished in the 'real' world.
Using a Caversham Heights as her base of operations, Thursday continues her apprenticeship with Miss Havisham from Great Expectations
. Not only is a fictional character
— Yorrick Kaine, the "discoverer" of Shakespeare's
lost play Cardenio
in the last book — loose in Thursday's real world, a person from Thursday's world has entered the BookWorld
and is conspiring with Kaine and Text Grand Central, the final arbitrators of plot, setting
, and other story elements, to release BOOK
version 9, code-named UltraWord.
UltraWord is touted at a JurisFiction meeting as the greatest advance "since the invention of movable type
" because it creates a thirty-two plot story system and allows the reader to control the story.
Thursday slowly loses her memory of Landen, though Granny Next remains with her and keeps her from forgetting him completely. Aornis Hades, the villain
ess, who nearly covered the world in Dream Topping in Lost in a Good Book
, is present in her memory
as a mindworm. Thursday learns that Harris Tweed, Kaine's partner, is masquerading as a JurisFiction agent to get UltraWord released in order to fix literature
. At the 923rd Annual BookWorld awards, Thursday proves to the seven million fictional characters assembled that UltraWord will render literature merely a saleable commodity — the thrice-read rule renders an UltraWord book impossible to read by a fourth person after the volume has been read by three people, thus rendering libraries
and second-hand bookstores useless. The quality of the writing is also substantively poorer; Thursday produces two skylark
s, one from a non-UltraWord book that is described vividly and poetically, and the other from an UltraWord book that is described flat and literally.
Tweed and Kaine call for a vote before the audience can be convinced that Thursday's is the correct argument. In this unprecedented emergency, Thursday breaks open the "IN UNPRECEDENTED EMERGENCY, BREAK GLASS" in her JurisFiction operative TravelBook and pulls the handle. The Great Panjandrum, ruler of the BookWorld, appears (a literal Deus ex machina
). The Panjandrum calls for an immediate vote which goes against UltraWord and calls on Thursday to take the job of Bellman, the superintendent of JurisFiction. The two Generics, now calling themselves Randolph and Lola, Thursday, and her pet dodo
Pickwick
take R&R in Caversham Heights, which was bought by the Council of Genres as a character sanctuary — a solution that appeals to the residents of the novel as well as the nursery rhyme
characters who were going to go on strike. The story of the new Caversham Heights constitutes Fforde's fifth book, The Big Over Easy
.
The American edition of The Well of Lost Plots has an extra chapter documenting the weathering of a WordStorm during Thursday's tenure as Bellman.
The story continues in Something Rotten
.
Jasper Fforde
Jasper Fforde is a British novelist. Fforde's first novel, The Eyre Affair, was published in 2001. Fforde is mainly known for his Thursday Next novels, although he has written several books in the loosely connected Nursery Crime series and begun two more independent series: The Last Dragonslayer...
and the continuation of the adventures of literary detective Thursday Next
Thursday Next
Thursday Next is the main protagonist in a series of comic fantasy, alternate history novels by the British author Jasper Fforde. She was first introduced in Fforde's first published novel, The Eyre Affair, released on July 19, 2001 by Hodder & Stoughton. , the series comprises six books, in two...
from The Eyre Affair
The Eyre Affair
The Eyre Affair is the first published novel by English author Jasper Fforde, released by Hodder and Stoughton in 2001. It takes place in alternative 1985, where literary detective Thursday Next pursues a master criminal through the world of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.-Plot summary:In a parallel...
and Lost in a Good Book
Lost in a Good Book
Lost in a Good Book is an alternate history, fantasy novel by Jasper Fforde. It won the IMBA 2004 Dilys Award.-Plot introduction:It is the second book by Jasper Fforde and the sequel to the adventures of literary detective Thursday Next in The Eyre Affair...
. Published in 2003, the book is set entirely within the jurisdiction of JurisFiction, the police force of fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
.
Plot summary
Apprentice JurisFiction agent and SpecOpsSpecOps
SpecOps is a fictional overarching British governmental force in Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series of novels. It was established in 1928 to handle policing duties "too unusual or too specialized" to be handled by the regular police. The force and divisions are similar in name to the real world...
-27 operative Thursday Next is taking a much-needed vacation inside Caversham Heights, a never-published detective novel inside the Well of Lost Plots, while waiting for her child to be born (she's pregnant although her husband Landen was erased from existence by the ChronoGuard in the previous book). As a cover, she must pretend to be the character she is replacing. In the book, she encounters two Generics, students of St Tabularasa's who have yet to be assigned to a book, and DCI Jack Spratt, a detective who partners with her in investigating a murder. Since Thursday is an "Outlander", a "real" person rather than a fictional character, Spratt hopes that she will help them appeal to the Council of Genres to prevent the disassembling of Caversham Heights, a fate inevitable for books which languish unpublished in the 'real' world.
Using a Caversham Heights as her base of operations, Thursday continues her apprenticeship with Miss Havisham from Great Expectations
Great Expectations
Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens. It was first published in serial form in the publication All the Year Round from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. It has been adapted for stage and screen over 250 times....
. Not only is a fictional character
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
— Yorrick Kaine, the "discoverer" of Shakespeare's
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
lost play Cardenio
Cardenio
The History of Cardenio, often referred to as merely Cardenio, is a lost play, known to have been performed by The King's Men, a London theatre company, in 1613. It was attributed to William Shakespeare and John Fletcher in a Stationers' Register entry of 1653...
in the last book — loose in Thursday's real world, a person from Thursday's world has entered the BookWorld
BookWorld
The BookWorld is a fictitious and complex environment that acts as a "behind-the-scenes" area of books. The BookWorld was created by Jasper Fforde in his Thursday Next series...
and is conspiring with Kaine and Text Grand Central, the final arbitrators of plot, setting
Setting (fiction)
In fiction, setting includes the time, location, and everything in which a story takes place, and initiates the main backdrop and mood for a story. Setting has been referred to as story world or milieu to include a context beyond the immediate surroundings of the story. Elements of setting may...
, and other story elements, to release BOOK
Book
A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
version 9, code-named UltraWord.
UltraWord is touted at a JurisFiction meeting as the greatest advance "since the invention of movable type
Movable type
Movable type is the system of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document ....
" because it creates a thirty-two plot story system and allows the reader to control the story.
Thursday slowly loses her memory of Landen, though Granny Next remains with her and keeps her from forgetting him completely. Aornis Hades, the villain
Villain
A villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters...
ess, who nearly covered the world in Dream Topping in Lost in a Good Book
Lost in a Good Book
Lost in a Good Book is an alternate history, fantasy novel by Jasper Fforde. It won the IMBA 2004 Dilys Award.-Plot introduction:It is the second book by Jasper Fforde and the sequel to the adventures of literary detective Thursday Next in The Eyre Affair...
, is present in her memory
Memory
In psychology, memory is an organism's ability to store, retain, and recall information and experiences. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing memory....
as a mindworm. Thursday learns that Harris Tweed, Kaine's partner, is masquerading as a JurisFiction agent to get UltraWord released in order to fix literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
. At the 923rd Annual BookWorld awards, Thursday proves to the seven million fictional characters assembled that UltraWord will render literature merely a saleable commodity — the thrice-read rule renders an UltraWord book impossible to read by a fourth person after the volume has been read by three people, thus rendering libraries
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
and second-hand bookstores useless. The quality of the writing is also substantively poorer; Thursday produces two skylark
Skylark
The Skylark is a small passerine bird species. This lark breeds across most of Europe and Asia and in the mountains of north Africa. It is mainly resident in the west of its range, but eastern populations are more migratory, moving further south in winter. Even in the milder west of its range,...
s, one from a non-UltraWord book that is described vividly and poetically, and the other from an UltraWord book that is described flat and literally.
Tweed and Kaine call for a vote before the audience can be convinced that Thursday's is the correct argument. In this unprecedented emergency, Thursday breaks open the "IN UNPRECEDENTED EMERGENCY, BREAK GLASS" in her JurisFiction operative TravelBook and pulls the handle. The Great Panjandrum, ruler of the BookWorld, appears (a literal Deus ex machina
Deus ex machina
A deus ex machina is a plot device whereby a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object.-Linguistic considerations:...
). The Panjandrum calls for an immediate vote which goes against UltraWord and calls on Thursday to take the job of Bellman, the superintendent of JurisFiction. The two Generics, now calling themselves Randolph and Lola, Thursday, and her pet dodo
Dodo
The dodo was a flightless bird endemic to the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. Related to pigeons and doves, it stood about a meter tall, weighing about , living on fruit, and nesting on the ground....
Pickwick
Pickwick
Pickwick may refer to:*The Pickwick Papers, a novel by Charles Dickens, or its main character, Mr Pickwick**The Pickwick Papers , a british 1952-film**The Pickwick Papers ....
take R&R in Caversham Heights, which was bought by the Council of Genres as a character sanctuary — a solution that appeals to the residents of the novel as well as the nursery rhyme
Nursery rhyme
The term nursery rhyme is used for "traditional" poems for young children in Britain and many other countries, but usage only dates from the 19th century and in North America the older ‘Mother Goose Rhymes’ is still often used.-Lullabies:...
characters who were going to go on strike. The story of the new Caversham Heights constitutes Fforde's fifth book, The Big Over Easy
The Big Over Easy
The Big Over Easy is a novel written by Jasper Fforde and published in 2005. It features Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and his assistant, Sergeant Mary Mary....
.
The American edition of The Well of Lost Plots has an extra chapter documenting the weathering of a WordStorm during Thursday's tenure as Bellman.
The story continues in Something Rotten
Something Rotten
Something Rotten is the fourthbook in the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. It continues the story some two years after the point where The Well of Lost Plots leaves off.-Plot introduction:...
.
Characters in Lost in a Good Book
- Thursday NextThursday NextThursday Next is the main protagonist in a series of comic fantasy, alternate history novels by the British author Jasper Fforde. She was first introduced in Fforde's first published novel, The Eyre Affair, released on July 19, 2001 by Hodder & Stoughton. , the series comprises six books, in two...
- Pickwick
- Randolph
- Lola
- Harris TweedCharacters in the Thursday Next SeriesThe Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde currently consists of the novels The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, Something Rotten, First Among Sequels and One of Our Thursdays Is Missing.-Victor Analogy:...
- The Great Panjandrum
- Aornis Hades
- Granny Next
- Landen Parke-Laine
- BellmanBellmanBellman is an alternative term for a bellhop. It may also refer to:People named Bellman* Carl Michael Bellman, Swedish poet and composer* Eric Bellman, psychotherapist* Gina Bellman, New Zealand/English actress...