The Constant Rabbit

В мире, где живет главная героиня, по-прежнему существует Российская империя, зато Великая Британия развалилась, и вот уже более ста лет продолжается Крымская война. В этом мире возможны путешествия во времени и практикуется клонирование вымерших в процессе эволюции животных. А еще здесь существует таинственная Сеть правительственных агентств, занимающихся чем угодно – от разборок между соседями до вампиров и инопланетных монстров. И надо же такому случиться, что наша главная героиня оказывается в центре интриги, сплетенной двумя злодеями мирового уровня. Причем преступники посягнули на самое святое, что существует в этом безумном мире – на Джен Эйр, любимейшую народом литературную героиню.

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.

Something Rotten is the fourth installment of the Thursday Next series and she returns to her parallel universe of England in 1988 along with her son, Friday, and Hamlet, prince of Denmark. Both Friday and Hamlet need to be watched and cared for, so Thursday tries again to undo her husband's eradication by the Goliath Corp., which has now changed from a huge corporation to a huge religion. The fictional outlaw Yorrick Kaine decides he wants to be elected emperor and embarks on an anti-Danish tirade to win support. Meanwhile, moody Hamlet watches plays and movies about himself and the Swindon team has a shot at winning the Superhoop, the world championship of croquet. It's more fictional fancy and wild imagination from Jasper Fforde and Something Rotten has received positive reviews. The Denver Post says, "The latest installment in the Thursday Next series is impressive, and arguably Fforde's best work to date. It is a compliment to the author's skill and creativity that his humor remains fresh and his central character gains depth."