All right, I've narrowed my list down and have three nominations. I tried to choose three that were all uniquely different from each other yet all seemed to convey the idea of fun in one way or another and hopefully any would be fun reads.
First, for many people one of the most fun places on earth is the circus, and so I'm nominating
Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter, a fantastical novel about a journalist wanting to discover if a performer that he is enamoured with and that is known as being half woman and half swan is really true or not and so he joins the circus, and the book is also a 'magical tour through turn-of-the-nineteenth-century London, St Petersburg and Siberia.' I don't see it available as an ebook on US Amazon, but it does have an ebook and is available on UK Amazon among others.
Goodreads 350 pages, 1984, England
Quote:
Is Sophie Fevvers, toast of Europe's capitals, part swan...or all fake?
Courted by the Prince of Wales and painted by Toulouse-Lautrec, she is an aerialiste extraordinaire and star of Colonel Kearney's circus. She is also part woman, part swan. Jack Walser, an American journalist, is on a quest to discover the truth behind her identity. Dazzled by his love for her, and desperate for the scoop of a lifetime, Walser has no choice but to join the circus on its magical tour through turn-of-the-nineteenth-century London, St Petersburg and Siberia.
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Second, I'm going from a 1984 book to an 1894 book and nominating the swashbuckling adventure
The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope. I love a good adventure book and while this one is old it looks like it could be a lot of fun.
Goodreads 178 pages, 1894, England
Quote:
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Anthony Hope's swashbuckling romance transports his English gentleman hero, Rudolf Rassendyll, from a comfortable life in London to fast-moving adventures in Ruritania, a mythical land steeped in political intrigue. Rassendyll bears a striking resemblance to Rudolf Elphberg who is about to be crowned King of Ruritania. When the rival to the throne, Black Michael of Strelsau, attempts to seize power by imprisoning Elphberg in the Castle of Zenda, Rassendyll is obliged to impersonate the King to uphold the rightful sovereignty and ensure political stability. Rassendyll endures a trial of strength in his encounters with the notorious Rupert of Hentzau, and a test of a different sort as he grows to love the Princess Flavia. Five times filmed, The Prisoner of Zenda has been deservedly popular as a classic of romance and adventure since its publication in 1894.
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Finally, I'm going to go a bit 'out there' and nominate a book that immerses itself into the world of literary books and especially classics which could be a lot of fun for a lit club to read -
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. This strange but alluring book envisions a world in which people can go into literary works and wreak havoc, such as Jane Eyre being kidnapped from her own novel.
Goodreads 374 pages, 2001, England
Quote:
Suspenseful and outlandish, absorbing and fun - a novel unlike any other and an introduction to the imagination of a most distinctive writer and his singular fictional universe.
Great Britain circa 1985: time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. Baconians are trying to convince the world that Francis Bacon really wrote Shakespeare, there are riots between the Surrealists and Impressionists, and thousands of men are named John Milton, an homage to the real Milton and a very confusing situation for the police. Amidst all this, Acheron Hades, Third Most Wanted Man In the World, steals the original manuscript of Martin Chuzzlewit and kills a minor character, who then disappears from every volume of the novel ever printed! But that's just a prelude . . .
Hades' real target is the beloved Jane Eyre, and it's not long before he plucks her from the pages of Bronte's novel. Enter Thursday Next. She's the Special Operative's renowned literary detective, and she drives a Porsche. With the help of her uncle Mycroft's Prose Portal, Thursday enters the novel to rescue Jane Eyre from this heinous act of literary homicide. It's tricky business, all these interlopers running about Thornfield, and deceptions run rampant as their paths cross with Jane, Rochester, and Miss Fairfax. Can Thursday save Jane Eyre and Bronte's masterpiece? And what of the Crimean War? Will it ever end? And what about those annoying black holes that pop up now and again, sucking things into time-space voids . . .
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This was just happenstance that I only noticed myself after I chose the three as I was writing this post and including the accompanying information for each nomination, but though I've managed to choose nominations from diverse publication dates and with distinctly different story aspects and settings, anyone eagle-eyed may notice all three have some sense of fantasy about them and all three are tied to or start in London and all are from English writers. To that I say, in the great words of Osgood from Some Like It Hot, 'Well, nobody's perfect!'