Rent: Around the World in Eighty Days (Puffin Classics)

A book based around a bet. Two adventurers, one a gentleman, and one not so nice, make a not so small wager, on Fogg's ability to circumnavigate the globe in 80 days or less.

When something like that happens, of course there will be villainous nogoodniks trying to stop you from accomplishing your task, winning the bet, getting the girl and all the good grog, etc.

Around The World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne is more true to life than
other books by Verne. The movie starring David Niven is a good movie.
By Danny Karl Fleming, author of How to Prove The Collatz Conjecture.

I had never read this classic until now, my 40th year, and I am so glad I did. I laughed, I was tense, I enjoyed it through and through.

Like many classics, this book is paced completely different than a modern novel. It takes forever to get going and even then, not all that much does happen. That to me was the biggest disappointment: Not all that much happens at all. Sure, they get in some trouble and have to fight their way through, but overall, it seems a two-week trip of my own is often more exciting than these 80 days around a world (to excaturate slightly). And to make matters worse, even when something does happen and people venture out to solve a problem, too much time is spent describing the people left behind waiting, and sometimes there is no description of the actual solution of the problem. But such is the style of the time, I guess.

I guess part of the problem is that the story deals with getting around the world as fast as possible, which leaves little time for anything but getting from a ship to the next train and so forth. Very little time is spent at all the different places, which would have offered so much potential story-wise, yet there is no time.

I still enjoyed reading it, in part because the way books were written at this time just amuses me (old English and all). And towards the end, the excitement does pick up a little bit. Not to modern-day-novel levels, but still, I enjoyed it.

You will like this book if you start reading with the right expectations.

I think those of us who were introduced to this classic via the recent Jackie Chan movie were done a great disservice. This book accomplishes what few books can: even though the characters are one dimensional, the reader cares about them and genuinely wants to know what will happen next.

The basic setup is that Phileas Fogg makes a bet with members of his club that he can travel the world in 80 days, and then lugs Passaporteau around with him while he sets about accomplishing this task.

Verne does a great job of indicting the tourist mindset that we have today, and apparently had back in Verne's time. Throughout the whole book, Fogg is traveling through France, India, Singapore, Japan and the US, yet never takes the time to appreciate any of it. It's a lot like the people who take vacations and then bring back 20 rolls of film depicting every single landmark mentioned in Frommer's. They've seen it all, but it's all done with a sense of urgency and no real joy. Again, Verne has proven adept at predicting and accurately characterizing human foibles.