Jules Verne

Around the World in 80 Days Jules Verne

Publisher Marketing: Around the World in Eighty Days is a classic adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, published in 1873. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a 20,000 wager (roughly 1.6 million today) set by his friends at the Reform Club. It is one of Verne's most acclaimed works. The story starts in London on Tuesday, October 1, 1872. Fogg is a rich English gentleman living in solitude. Despite his wealth, Fogg lives a modest life with habits carried out with mathematical precision. Very little can be said about his social life other than that he is a member of the Reform Club. Having dismissed his former valet, James Foster, for bringing him shaving water at 84 F (29 C) instead of 86 F (30 C), Fogg hires a Frenchman by the name of Jean Passepartout as a replacement. At the Reform Club, Fogg gets involved in an argument over an article in The Daily Telegraph stating that with the opening of a new railway section in India, it is now possible to travel around the world in 80 days. He accepts a wager for 20,000 (equal to about 1.6 million today) from his fellow club members, which he will receive if he makes it around the world in 80 days. Accompanied by Passepartout, he leaves London by train at 8:45 P. M. on Wednesday, October 2, 1872, and is due back at the Reform Club at the same time 80 days later, Saturday, December 21, 1872." Review Citations: Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/1996 (EAN 9780304317691, Hardcover) School Library Journal 05/01/2007 pg. 100 (EAN 9780836876628, Library Binding) School Library Journal 07/01/2005 (EAN 9780307206824, Compact Disc) Kliatt 09/01/2005 pg. 44 (EAN 9780307206824, Compact Disc) - *Starred Review Booklist Editors Choice/Media 01/01/2006 pg. 18 (EAN 9780307206824, Compact Disc) School Library Journal 07/01/2005 (EAN 9780307206282, Analog Audio Cassette) Booklist Editors Choice/Media 01/01/2006 pg. 18 (EAN 9780307206282, Analog Audio Cassette) School Library Journal 04/01/2005 pg. 70 (EAN 9781400101313, Compact Disc) Ingram Paperback Advance 05/01/2005 pg. 63 (EAN 9780451529770, Mass Market Paperbound) Publishers Weekly 02/14/2005 (EAN 9780307206428, Compact Disc) - *Starred Review Entertainment Weekly 07/06/2004 pg. 94 (EAN 9780140449068, Paperback) Kirkus Review - Children 05/01/1996 pg. 696 (EAN 9780670869176, Hardcover) School Library Journal 07/01/1996 pg. 101 (EAN 9780670869176, Hardcover) Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/1996 pg. 302 (EAN 9780670869176, Hardcover) Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/1990 (EAN 9780670869176, Hardcover) Kirkus Review - Children 05/01/1996 pg. 696 (EAN 9780670867936, Paperback) Wilson Fiction Catalog 01/01/2006 pg. 950 (EAN 9780192837783, Paperback) Wilson Fiction Catalog 01/01/2010 pg. 952 (EAN 9780192837783, Paperback) Contributor Bio:  Verne, Jules Jules Verne was a French writer and pioneer of the science fiction genre through novels like Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Around the World in Eighty Days, A Journey to the Center of the Earth, and The Mysterious Island. A visionary, Verne wrote about air, space, and underwater travel long before the ability to travel in these realms was invented, and his works remain amongst the most translated, most continually reprinted, and most widely read books of all time. Jules Verne died in 1905 having paved the way for future science fiction writers and enthusiasts.