Category: Jules Verne
book review – Around the World in Eighty Days
This is a great book and comes from a writer with a solid canon of pacey adventure stories. But what you miss in the film and cartoon versions is the sheer scale of the effort of Jules Verne’s vision. He must have sat there with maps, guide books and numerous steamer and train timetables to be able not only to map the journey round the world but also factor in the numerous diversions that Phileas Fogg and company have to take.
Add to that the descriptions of the places they visit, which all sound as if Verne has had personal experience of them and you are left admiring not just the story but the ambition of it.
Plot summary
On paper the story sounds so simple with Phileas Fogg, a rich gentleman that lives by a very strict regime suddenly decides that following the suggestion in he paper that it is now possible to go around the world in 80 days he will do it. He makes the decision in front of four club members at The Reform Club in London and then almost immediately departs for the continent. He takes with him his newly appointed servant Passepartout and on his journey picks up an Indian princess and is dogged by Fix the detective who is convinced that Fogg is a bank robber on the run. By throwing money around and riding his luck Fogg manages to do it before failing at the final hurdle. But thanks to Passepartout going out to find a priest to help Fogg marry his princess they realise they have made the trip in 79 days and have time to make the bet. The conclusion is that it was worth going round the world not for the money, although that helps, but for love.
Is it well written?
The level of research is staggering and it is totally believable not only in terms of the locations but also the timing because Fogg shares it with the reader all the way through. It is one of those books that most people claim to have read because they can bluff the story based on knowing the ending from the various film versions. But you miss the pace, the sense of determination, coldness and detached behaviour of Fogg, who almost defines an Empire generation, which presumably Verne was trying to do. You are never bored reading it, never fully confident that you can predict the outcome and right until the end the central character remains an enigma to everyone around him including the reader,
Should it be read?
There is no excuse for not going out and picking this up for a couple of pounds or second hand. I might seem to be a bit school syllabus type stuff but it is a classic adventure story that has stood the test of time.Verne uses great locations and has the pace of the time as his aid but what makes this a memorable read is that you are unlikely to read a book with such an odd array of main characters than this one.
Summary
Around the world in 79 days to find love
Version read -Penguin popular classics
book of books – Around the World in Eighty Days
This is a great book and comes from a writer with a solid canon of pacey adventure stories. But what you miss in the film and cartoon versions is the sheer scale of the effort of Jules Verne’s vision. He must have sat there with maps, guide books and numerous steamer and train timetables to be able not only to map the journey round the world but also factor in the numerous diversions that Phileas Fogg and company have to take.
Add to that the descriptions of the places they visit, which all sound as if Verne has had personal experience of them and you are left admiring not just the story but the ambition of it.
Plot summary
On paper the story sounds so simple with Phileas Fogg, a rich gentleman that lives by a very strict regime suddenly decides that following the suggestion in he paper that it is now possible to go around the world in 80 days he will do it. He makes the decision in front of four club members at The Reform Club in London and then almost immediately departs for the continent. He takes with him his newly appointed servant Passepartout and on his journey picks up an Indian princess and is dogged by Fix the detective who is convinced that Fogg is a bank robber on the run. By throwing money around and riding his luck Fogg manages to do it before failing at the final hurdle. But thanks to Passepartout going out to find a priest to help Fogg marry his princess they realise they have made the trip in 79 days and have time to make the bet. The conclusion is that it was worth going round the world not for the money, although that helps, but for love.
Is it well written?
The level of research is staggering and it is totally believable not only in terms of the locations but also the timing because Fogg shares it with the reader all the way through. It is one of those books that most people claim to have read because they can bluff the story based on knowing the ending from the various film versions. But you miss the pace, the sense of determination, coldness and detached behaviour of Fogg, who almost defines an Empire generation, which presumably Verne was trying to do. You are never bored reading it, never fully confident that you can predict the outcome and right until the end the central character remains an enigma to everyone around him including the reader,
Should it be read?
There is no excuse for not going out and picking this up for a couple of pounds or second hand. I might seem to be a bit school syllabus type stuff but it is a classic adventure story that has stood the test of time.Verne uses great locations and has the pace of the time as his aid but what makes this a memorable read is that you are unlikely to read a book with such an odd array of main characters than this one.
Summary
Around the world in 79 days to find love
Version read -Penguin popular classics
book review – Around the World in Eighty Days
This is a great book and comes from a writer with a solid canon of pacey adventure stories. But what you miss in the film and cartoon versions is the sheer scale of the effort of Jules Verne’s vision. He must have sat there with maps, guide books and numerous steamer and train timetables to be able not only to map the journey round the world but also factor in the numerous diversions that Phileas Fogg and company have to take.
Add to that the descriptions of the places they visit, which all sound as if Verne has had personal experience of them and you are left admiring not just the story but the ambition of it.
Plot summary
On paper the story sounds so simple with Phileas Fogg, a rich gentleman that lives by a very strict regime suddenly decides that following the suggestion in he paper that it is now possible to go around the world in 80 days he will do it. He makes the decision in front of four club members at The Reform Club in London and then almost immediately departs for the continent. He takes with him his newly appointed servant Passepartout and on his journey picks up an Indian princess and is dogged by Fix the detective who is convinced that Fogg is a bank robber on the run. By throwing money around and riding his luck Fogg manages to do it before failing at the final hurdle. But thanks to Passepartout going out to find a priest to help Fogg marry his princess they realise they have made the trip in 79 days and have time to make the bet. The conclusion is that it was worth going round the world not for the money, although that helps, but for love.
Is it well written?
The level of research is staggering and it is totally believable not only in terms of the locations but also the timing because Fogg shares it with the reader all the way through. It is one of those books that most people claim to have read because they can bluff the story based on knowing the ending from the various film versions. But you miss the pace, the sense of determination, coldness and detached behaviour of Fogg, who almost defines an Empire generation, which presumably Verne was trying to do. You are never bored reading it, never fully confident that you can predict the outcome and right until the end the central character remains an enigma to everyone around him including the reader,
Should it be read?
There is no excuse for not going out and picking this up for a couple of pounds or second hand. I might seem to be a bit school syllabus type stuff but it is a classic adventure story that has stood the test of time.Verne uses great locations and has the pace of the time as his aid but what makes this a memorable read is that you are unlikely to read a book with such an odd array of main characters than this one.
Summary
Around the world in 79 days to find love
Version read -Penguin popular classics
book review – Around the World in Eighty Days
This is a great book and comes from a writer with a solid canon of pacey adventure stories. But what you miss in the film and cartoon versions is the sheer scale of the effort of Jules Verne’s vision. He must have sat there with maps, guide books and numerous steamer and train timetables to be able not only to map the journey round the world but also factor in the numerous diversions that Phileas Fogg and company have to take.
Add to that the descriptions of the places they visit, which all sound as if Verne has had personal experience of them and you are left admiring not just the story but the ambition of it.
Plot summary
On paper the story sounds so simple with Phileas Fogg, a rich gentleman that lives by a very strict regime suddenly decides that following the suggestion in he paper that it is now possible to go around the world in 80 days he will do it. He makes the decision in front of four club members at The Reform Club in London and then almost immediately departs for the continent. He takes with him his newly appointed servant Passepartout and on his journey picks up an Indian princess and is dogged by Fix the detective who is convinced that Fogg is a bank robber on the run. By throwing money around and riding his luck Fogg manages to do it before failing at the final hurdle. But thanks to Passepartout going out to find a priest to help Fogg marry his princess they realise they have made the trip in 79 days and have time to make the bet. The conclusion is that it was worth going round the world not for the money, although that helps, but for love.
Is it well written?
The level of research is staggering and it is totally believable not only in terms of the locations but also the timing because Fogg shares it with the reader all the way through. It is one of those books that most people claim to have read because they can bluff the story based on knowing the ending from the various film versions. But you miss the pace, the sense of determination, coldness and detached behaviour of Fogg, who almost defines an Empire generation, which presumably Verne was trying to do. You are never bored reading it, never fully confident that you can predict the outcome and right until the end the central character remains an enigma to everyone around him including the reader,
Should it be read?
There is no excuse for not going out and picking this up for a couple of pounds or second hand. I might seem to be a bit school syllabus type stuff but it is a classic adventure story that has stood the test of time.Verne uses great locations and has the pace of the time as his aid but what makes this a memorable read is that you are unlikely to read a book with such an odd array of main characters than this one.
Summary
Around the world in 79 days to find love
Version read -Penguin popular classics
Lunchtime read: Around the World in Eighty Days
Everything seems lost but a mix up saves the day and Fogg finds that apart from the money it was well worth travelling round the world.
Highlights from chapters XXXV to XXXVII
Although the wager seems lost Fogg admits after she asks to marry him that he is in love with the woman he rescued back in India from the jungle and they send Passepartout out to get the priest to marry them on the day after, Monday. But the French servant runs back after discovering that they have got their days wrong and it is still Saturday and he has ten minutes to get to the Reform Club. He manages to get there in time and wins the bet and then heads back home. He marries and on reflection is glad that he went round the world to find the woman he loved – someone to melt his ice cool heart.
A review will come soon…
Lunchtime read: Around the World in Eighty Days
Everything seems lost but a mix up saves the day and Fogg finds that apart from the money it was well worth travelling round the world.
Highlights from chapters XXXV to XXXVII
Although the wager seems lost Fogg admits after she asks to marry him that he is in love with the woman he rescued back in India from the jungle and they send Passepartout out to get the priest to marry them on the day after, Monday. But the French servant runs back after discovering that they have got their days wrong and it is still Saturday and he has ten minutes to get to the Reform Club. He manages to get there in time and wins the bet and then heads back home. He marries and on reflection is glad that he went round the world to find the woman he loved – someone to melt his ice cool heart.
A review will come soon…
Lunchtime read: Around the World in Eighty Days
Things seem to have all gone wrong and in the end it is not because of a lack of trying but because of the obsession that Fix has with arresting Phileas Fogg. You hope that there has been some terrible mistake with the clocks and there is still time for him to win the wager but you sense that all is lost.
Highlights between chapters XXXI – XXXIV
After rescuing Passepartout the group take a sledge with sails and fly through the snow and ice to catch up with the main line and then take a train to Chicago. Then they switch to take a train to New York but when they arrive they have missed the steamer to Liverpool by three quarters of an hour. Fogg tries to get a boat but the captain on the only one that will go fast grudgingly accepts his passage to Bordeaux so Fogg takes over the boat and only releases the captain when they have run out of coal;. He buys the boat and burns the deck and pulls into port to catch a train to Liverpool.
Once on British soil Fix turn round and arrests him and puts him in a cell. The train to London leaves and Fogg is still in the cell. Fix bursts into tell him the real robber has been found and receives a punch in the face from Fogg for his efforts and then heads off but time has run out and he heads home rather than going to the Reform Club to collect his winnings.
Final chunk tomorrow…
Lunchtime read: Around the World in Eighty Days
Things seem to have all gone wrong and in the end it is not because of a lack of trying but because of the obsession that Fix has with arresting Phileas Fogg. You hope that there has been some terrible mistake with the clocks and there is still time for him to win the wager but you sense that all is lost.
Highlights between chapters XXXI – XXXIV
After rescuing Passepartout the group take a sledge with sails and fly through the snow and ice to catch up with the main line and then take a train to Chicago. Then they switch to take a train to New York but when they arrive they have missed the steamer to Liverpool by three quarters of an hour. Fogg tries to get a boat but the captain on the only one that will go fast grudgingly accepts his passage to Bordeaux so Fogg takes over the boat and only releases the captain when they have run out of coal;. He buys the boat and burns the deck and pulls into port to catch a train to Liverpool.
Once on British soil Fix turn round and arrests him and puts him in a cell. The train to London leaves and Fogg is still in the cell. Fix bursts into tell him the real robber has been found and receives a punch in the face from Fogg for his efforts and then heads off but time has run out and he heads home rather than going to the Reform Club to collect his winnings.
Final chunk tomorrow…
Lunchtime read: Around the World in Eighty Days
Just as it seemed to be going so well for Phileas Fogg his servant jeopardizes the chance to make it back to London in time. You wonder if Fogg would have not been better leaving his servant Passepartout earlier when he had the chance. But still he might have his uses, and does save the trainload of passengers.
Highlights between chapters XXVI to XXX
On board the train to New York the only hiccup is that the man Fogg was determined to have duel with is also onboard so his company try to keep them apart but in the end fail. A duel is called for and the two parties go into a large carriage at the rear of the train and are left alone but shooting breaks out at the front and the train is being attacked by red Indians who hope to take over the train. There are casualties on both sides and the acrobatic Passepartout is the hero when he crawls along the chains to the front of the train and releases the engine from the carriages.
But when the train stops near a fort and the Indians are chased off it is clear three passengers including Passepartout have been taken prisoner. Fogg takes give soldiers and goes looking for him but as a result misses the train and is 20 hours behind and almost certain to miss the connection with the steamer to Liverpool.
More tomorrow…
Lunchtime read: Around the World in Eighty Days
Just as it seemed to be going so well for Phileas Fogg his servant jeopardizes the chance to make it back to London in time. You wonder if Fogg would have not been better leaving his servant Passepartout earlier when he had the chance. But still he might have his uses, and does save the trainload of passengers.
Highlights between chapters XXVI to XXX
On board the train to New York the only hiccup is that the man Fogg was determined to have duel with is also onboard so his company try to keep them apart but in the end fail. A duel is called for and the two parties go into a large carriage at the rear of the train and are left alone but shooting breaks out at the front and the train is being attacked by red Indians who hope to take over the train. There are casualties on both sides and the acrobatic Passepartout is the hero when he crawls along the chains to the front of the train and releases the engine from the carriages.
But when the train stops near a fort and the Indians are chased off it is clear three passengers including Passepartout have been taken prisoner. Fogg takes give soldiers and goes looking for him but as a result misses the train and is 20 hours behind and almost certain to miss the connection with the steamer to Liverpool.
More tomorrow…
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