Around the World

Product Information

The richness and poetry of Around the World in Eighty Days, together with the lively narrative, won Verne worldwide renown and was a fantastic success for the times, setting new sales records, with translations in English, Russian, Italian, and Spanish appearing soon after it was published in book form. The movies were learning to talk (and in the case of King Kong, growl), the music was beginning to swing, and the nation was thrown into tremendous turmoil.

Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days was quite the hit back in the day, particularly in the 19th century. It sparked a worldwide fascination with the idea of circumnavigating the globe and inspired a number of intrepid individuals to take on the task.

Originally published in 1996, this is a welcome reappearance of a picture book brimming with Caribbean sunshine and culture. In San Francisco, they board a transcontinental train to New York, encountering several obstacles along the way: a herd of bison crossing the tracks, a failing suspension bridge and a band of Sioux warriors ambushing the train. Its superficiality is joyful in a way that I didn’t expect and I thoroughly enjoyed travelling with Fogg and his companions around the world. I’d always known how important the book was said to be, but until I first read it, I had no idea how delightful it is to sink into its luxurious sentences.

This is even true of Fogg at times and I think the only character with a true sense of personality is Passepartout. In 1984, Nicholas Coleridge emulated Fogg's trip, taking 78 days; he wrote a book titled Around the World in 78 Days. Reunited, the four board a paddle-steamer, the General Grant, taking them across the Pacific to San Francisco.The train trip continues more or less uneventfully until it reaches Medicine Bow, Wyoming Territory, where a signalman tells them that the suspension bridge is too dilapidated to bear the weight of a train. The book gives added insight into our modern world through its visual exploration of subjects such as eating habits, overfishing, and internet providers, as well as events that have left indelible marks on our collective conscience including September 11, the Olympic Games, Japan’s Fukushima disaster, and the sinking of the Titanic. His most popular novels included Journey to the Center of the Earth, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and Around the World in Eighty Days. There's something for all types of children, what's important is that they all show tales beyond the familiar.