From the Archives: Book Review: Around the World in 80 Days
Book: Around the World in 80 Days
Review Score: 5-stars, Loved it!
Author: Jules Verne
Genre: Fiction, Action/Adventure, Classic, Historical
Places Featured: London, England, Hong Kong, Japan, United States
(Originally published on Travel Books and Movies in March 2012.) A site like this, focused on books and movies that inspire travel, has to start with a pretty good story…and I couldn’t think of a more fitting start than an adventure story that takes us completely around the world—even if it was written almost 140 years ago. It’s been assigned by literature teachers everywhere, adapted into movies, mini-series, and musicals, and has certainly inspired travelers—Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne was written in 1873 and continues to encourage adventurers all over the world.
While it seems silly now since our world is full of high-speed affordable air travel (well, the affordable part can be argued), back then, the idea of traveling around the world in 80 days was ridiculous—worthy of a £20,000 bet (equal to well over one million pounds—or two million dollars—today). Phileas Fogg, an exacting rich single English gentleman, takes on this bet and hastily sets out on an adventure accompanied by his manservant, Jean Passepartout, a Frenchman who serves as the comic relief in the story.
Fogg knew that their journey around the world would not be an easy one: “I knew that some obstacle or other would sooner or later arise on my route.”—transportation issues are expected (who hasn’t experienced those?), but they are also met with other challenges along the way including a detective with an arrest warrant, a funeral pyre, opium dens, train hijacking, and more (if you’ve experienced those, I hope you’re writing your own book about your travels).
Although it seems crazy to me, Fogg isn’t actually interested in “travelling, but [in] only describing a circumference,” so for readers looking for detailed descriptions of the book’s destinations (which include England, India, Hong Kong, Japan, and the United States), you’ll have to look through Passepartout’s eyes, and, even then, there isn’t always a lot of description. The book has inspired several travelers, however, including Michael Palin, of Monty Python fame, and others to traverse the world in similar patterns…continuing the challenge of not traveling by air (which would be way too easy and way less adventurous).
If you’re looking for a thrilling easy-to-read story that is full of adventure, fun, and exotic destinations, this is a good choice. It is a classic for adventurers and literati alike, but, do keep in mind the book was written in the late 1800’s—the language can sometimes be challenging and the views of different cultures are occasionally disparaging.
As Fogg states, “The world has grown smaller, since a man can now go round it ten times more quickly than a hundred years ago,”—and that was written 140 years ago. Imagine what Jules Verne would think of the world today.
(And if you’re as big a fan of this as I am, you should probably check out my Movie Review for Around the World in 80 Days or my book review for Eighty Days by Matthew Goodman–the *true* story of the first person to actually go around the world in (less than) eighty days…a woman!)
