Book Review: Eighty Days by Matthew Goodman

Review: I don’t remember when I first read the book or knew of the story about Phileas Fogg and his race around the world, but I have read the book by Jules Verne more than a few times (the first book review I wrote when I first got the idea for this blog was a book review for Around the World in Eighty Days). Although the book was written more than 150 years ago and pretty much everything in it is very outdated, it’s still a fascinating exciting story for anyone who loves to travel.

If you’re not familiar with the story, it’s a book (first published in 1872 by French author, Jules Verne) about a rich British gentleman, Phileas Fogg, who makes a bet that he can go around the world in 80 days. Of course, back then, the only options for travel were train and steamship and in order to meet that deadline everything must go according plan…and anyone that’s traveled knows that never happens. So it’s a story of adventure and mishaps (and even some romance).

The book has also been remade into several movies (I also have a movie review for the 1956 version of Around the World in Eighty Days which won five Academy Awards, including the one for Best Picture) and many have attempted to recreate the trip including the well-known British comedian Michael Palin.

I’m almost embarrassed to admit, then, that I didn’t know that the first person to really circumnavigate the world in eighty days (actually in 72) was a woman: Nellie Bly. And the second person? Another woman: Elisabeth Bisland. In fact, the two of them were actually racing against each other (although Nellie didn’t actually know that until she was already on the way). Best-selling author Matthew Goodman tells their story in Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World.

Nellie Bly was a trailblazer journalist who is actually most well-known for going undercover at a New York insane asylum and exposing the deplorable conditions and terrible treatment of patients.

What I find even more impressive is that one year after writing that article, she approached her editor at The New York World with the idea that she would turn Phileas Fogg’s fictional trip into a reality and go around the world in eighty days (which had never been done before). And, she did. In 1889, she completed the almost 25,000 mile journey in 72 days (she also met Jules Verne and his wife while on her trip).

Meanwhile, the editor at the Cosmipolitan heard that Bly was setting out on this adventure and, thinking she was making an error in traveling East, decided to send his own reporter, Elizabeth Bisland, on a similar journey but traveling West. And while Bisland does also complete the trip, Bly does still do it faster.

Matthew Goodman thoroughly researched both of these women and both of these trips and tells their stories in his book, Eighty Days. It is well-researched, well-written, and offers an interesting look into many facets of life in the 19th century beyond just travel and transportation. There is some very interesting insight into sexism (“How could a woman take on this trip? She will need too many trunks!”), journalism (the competition between the two papers was certainly fierce), celebrities (the year after Nellie completed her trip was a challenging one and while there’s a chance you’ve heard of Nellie Bly, I’m pretty sure you’ve never heard of Elizabeth Bisland), and more.

There are a few dry parts of the book as there are many many details and sometimes the side stories meant to supplement the story end up getting in the way of the main story (though I will say I did also find some of them interesting), but, overall, anyone interested in travel, Phileas Fogg/Around the World in Eighty Days, and Nellie Bly will enjoy this book.

(And, if you’re interested, you can read Nellie Bly’s own writing about her trip in a book called Around the World in 72 Days and Other Writings; this book is also included in my list of Twenty Travel Memoirs about Solo Travel by Women Writers.)

**Some of the links included here are affiliate links meaning I receive a small portion of any purchases made directly from links on this site. Thanks for fueling my reading, watching, and traveling!