Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Around the World in Eighty Days

Top positive review

Excellent - Lovely Story.

Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2018

When I was a young kid in middle school I read this and loved it. Later I read it as an adult and got more out of it. Now my children are learning the joys of Jules Verne.

One of the value of reading classics like this is that they use a lot of great vocabulary words. Reading books equals great vocabulary which equals better test scores on standardized tests. This is a great book for reading aloud as well.

In this book Phineas Fogg has made a bet that he can travel around the world in 80 days. And thus begins the adventure.

12 people found this helpful

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No publisher listed and the typeset is poorly done. Find a different publisher.

Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2021

I am looking forward to reading this story but took off two stars because of the book format. This isn’t a usual book print- it’s like one of those “cheap” self published books, the paper and the text layout. My eyes hurt from having to scan back and forth a longer distance than usual lines of text in most books I’ve read. I suggest you find a different publisher of this story and don’t buy this version. An adjustment (increase) to the line spacing after each paragraph is also called for here. Actually looking at the book right now, there is no publisher listed in the front or back pages of the book and the isbn listing on the back and the text in the page in the back of the book shows this is a self published version of this story. I recommend going with a traditional publisher who knows how to typeset. Check out the weird copyright page (see photo).

7 people found this helpful

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From the United States

Lydia M

Oh Phileas

Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2015

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I loved this book so much! Phileas Fogg makes a wager he can travel the world in 80 days. The book follows his journey, which is so fun. Along the way he travels by train, boat, elephant, and more. The dialogue is excellent, and the story is so fun!

I would recommend this book to pretty much everyone. It's a classic adventure story. Who doesn't love a good adventure? The plot is fast-paced, and the dialogue is well-written. The book is also very descriptive, which makes the journey seem very believable.

Phileas is such a great English hero. He never gets flustered or shows worry. He just does what he has to do to succeed. Passpartout, his servant, is a great character, too. He doesn't initially want to travel the world, but he quickly becomes very enthusiastic for the journey.

10 people found this helpful

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The Novel Is Different From the Film

Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2021

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I like to listen to an audio book for 15 minutes in bed before I go to sleep. The male reader has a good voice with an apt British accent. I had recently watched the film. I was disappointed that there is no travel by hot air balloon, although Verne used one in his novel, The Mysterious Island. Verne skipped any description of the stop in France. I was relieved that there is no scene of Passportou fighting a bull. I have not finished the story yet, with the trip across the U. S..

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Amazon Customer

Very Interesting Story

Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2020

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I found this book very interesting for me. It was sort of books where you could travel virtually around the world with the author's heroes and find a lot of interesting stories related to them and the same time introduce you the culture of the countries where they were travel. I have seen the cartoon of this story more than thirty years ago but comparing to the book that I had just finished, I found a lot differences between them. So the book was very interesting than the cartoon that I've seen.

One person found this helpful

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A Goddess of Literature

Review of Around the World in 80 Days

Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2013

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This book starts off a little slow, as different countries and cities are mentioned in succession. I'm geographically challenged, these names are lost on me. I may have heard of them, but I have no clue where they are.

There are several plot twists as different obstacles get into Phileas Fogg's way that made me wonder if he would make his journey in the allotted time. I had always assumed he does succeed, I've never heard contrary, but does he? I'm not going to tell and ruin it for you, you'll just have to find out for yourself.

One thing that I find amazing, or possibly completely unbelievable is that Phileas Fogg just picks up and takes off on his trip. There was no planning whatsoever and it isn't like he has a smart phone with GPS. I suppose we could assume that Phileas is perusing the newspapers while on one train looking for his next connection and the book glances over this fact. There is one instance where Phileas asks the steamboat captain if there is another boat scheduled to leave the harbor when he realizes he has missed his intended connection. I could picture the captain shrugging and saying "I dunno". I guess customer service was a lot better back then, as Phileas actually received an intelligent response.

I'm not going to proclaim this as a new found favorite that I look forward to reading over and over. It WAS worth the read, but I usually think all classic books are as they are classics for a reason. I would read it again.

2 people found this helpful

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Lengo67

A Very Good Read for Those With a Taste for Adventure

Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2015

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This is the original version with a few corrections in grammar or spelling.

I bought this to compare it to Michael Todd's movie of the same name. An informational video I had seen about the movie made some extravagant claims, so I bought this to check out those claims. Todd had wanted the cast as you see them because they fit Verne's description. The book proved that. Todd had wanted most everything that the book has (all of the story line). It does. Then on top of that, the story is truly wonderful. It is upliftting and fun at times, and harrowing and suspenseful at others. I was very pleased with this book. You will be too, especiallyu if you've seen Michael Todd's production of this in his 1950s movie. Hell. Buy this book and buy the movie too. Both are delightfully entertaining!

6 people found this helpful

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Claude Avary

Best and newest translation of the book available.

Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2004

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Although it has a cover for the 2004 movie version of the book, this translation of "Around the World in 80 Days" ("Le tour du monde en quartre-vingts jours") by Jules Verne isn't just a quickly recycled old edition with a new cover slapped on it. It is a complete new translation by Michael Glencross that fixes the mistakes and sloppy translations found in most others editions -- many of them more than fifty years old and continuously clumped out on the market. Verne deserves better, and here it is. Doing comparisons with some of the other editions that I own shows how superior and well-thought out Glencross's translation is. He includes many pages of endnotes as well. The endnotes are valuable for the modern reader to navigate some of Verne's references, as well as understanding his attitude and his world. The notes also contain information on the translation choices that Glencross made. This edition will immensely increase your enjoyment of one of the most popular and perenially enjoyable stories of adventure and technology ever written.
"Around the World in 80 Days" was first published in book form in 1973, and quickly became a worldwide bestseller. Jules Verne is today considered principally a science-fiction writer, but many of his books were straightforward travelogues. This novel takes the travelogue concept to its extreme, sending the hero on a blistering tour of the world.
And what a hero! Phileas Fogg, a British gentleman and member of the Reform Club, who lives his life in exact measurements, takes a bet at his club that he cannot travel around the world along a designated route in less than eighty days. Fogg takes the bet, and takes along his faithful (and bewildered) French servant Passepartout. Trailing after Fogg is Detective Inspector Fix, who believes Fogg is a bank robber escaping with an extraordinary sum. Along the journey, the beautiful Indian lady Mrs. Aouda joins up with the remarkable Mr. Fogg.
Fogg uses nearly every form of transportation known at the time to make his rapid circumnavigation of the globe: "steamships, railways, carriages, yachts, commercial vessels, a sledge and an elephant." Along the way he has extraordinary adventures: Sioux attacks, collapsed bridges, death cults, nail-biting delays (even one missed connection and the trip will fail), kidnappings, rescues, and some incredibly innovative quick-thinking. And Jules Verne offers us a pretty nifty education as Fogg and Passepartout, along with the Mrs. Aouda and the determined Inpsector Fix, make their tour of the world. Mr. Fogg may not have time to look at the sites, but the reader gets a delightful look at the world of the 1870s, from England, to India, to the Red Sea, to Japan, to Hong Kong, to San Francisco, to the American frontier.
Although "20,000 Leagues under the Sea" is Verne's greatest novel, "Around the World in 80 Days" is his breeziest and funniest. Verne's French wit and observations are sometimes screamingly funny. Take this great deadpan statement from the train trip across the U.S.: "Given the carefree attitude of the Americans, you can be sure that when they start getting cautious, then there really is cause for concern." Even the chapter titles are often hilarious: "Phileas Fogg travels the whole length of the wonderful valley of the Ganges without thinking it worth a look," and "Passepartout receives a lecture on Mormon history while traveling at a speed of twenty miles per hour." In Phileas Fogg, Verne created a wonderful caricature and epitome of the perfect English gentleman. Fogg is one of the great, unforgettable heroes of European literature.
If you're itching to read "Around the World in 80 Days" -- and with all its humor, adventure, romance, and information, you should be scratching yourself like crazy to read it -- or re-read it for the first time in many years, this is the edition to get. Don't let the cover fool you! This is the best translation yet published, and the notes are a great help as well.

17 people found this helpful

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Kay's Husband

A TIMELESS CLASSIC

Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2008

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Anyone having seen the movie of the 1950's starring David Niven will be quite familiar with this novel from Jules Verne. None-the-less, the story is a pleasure to read whether one knows the outcome or not.

Jules Verne had wanted to be a writer from childhood but to please his parents (his father was a lawyer) studied to become a lawyer. Trying to combine the requirements of the law and the desires of his heart, he worked for awhile as a lawyer while writing, but eventually switched over to full time writing.

He began to write books of adventure and daring, which led to a string of books some have called 'extraordinary voyages', which include Voyage Around the World, Five Weeks In A Balloon, Journey To The Center Of The Earth, and 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. One of the later novels in this long series was the present novel, written from a serious viewpoint but also with touch of comedy, an element previously unknown in the writings of Jules Verne. He confessed to picking up the idea of the story while in a cafe, that it was now possible (1872) to travel around the world in 80 days. With the writing of this novel, Jules Verne, wrote the most popular novel of any of his many books; and to this day, the book remains a classic. One of the unusual features of the story is the manner in which Verne uses, as did Edgar Allen Poe earlier, the international date line to have a major influence on the outcome of the story.

One of the more surprising facts of Jules Verne's life is that he did not travel, even living in Paris amounted to too much noise and busy activity, so he moved north of the city 80 miles or so to his wife's hometown of Amiens, there to live out the remainder of his life in peace and quiet. The closest he got to any travel was the railroad that daily ran past his house. Yes, the author of so many travel and adventure stories never, ever, went traveling himself. So if you read that this most popular novel of his is an armchair adventure book, you can believe it. For its author never ventured forth, with only a couple exceptions, from his armchair either!

Semper Fi.

5 people found this helpful

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Tarwe, the Narnian Elf

Awesome Adventure

Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2013

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I am always on the lookout for good novels. So when I find a book that I love, I get really excited! I know that you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but it's an added bonus for me when the cover looks cool, too! This combines both a great story and a beautiful cover, so it was the perfect choice for me! It is an unabridged version, too.

For those of you who are not familiar with the storyline, it is set in the late 1800's. Phileas Fogg of London is a rich gentleman who makes a wager with his fellow club members that he can traverse the circumference of the globe within 80 days. Fogg is a very exact man who is accompanied by his sometimes bumbling valet Jean Passepartout. Traveling through the different continents and countries in that time period would be an adventure in itself, but there is the added pressure of making it within 80 days. Things get nip and tuck a number of times...

I have never been disappointed with one of Jules Verne's books, and this is a very nice paperback copy of this classic story.

2 people found this helpful

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kodan

Small crowded print

Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2019

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Bought as a present, item is new in great condition but unfortunately the text is small and crammed on a page which makes it hard to read, esp. for a child.

5 people found this helpful

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THe Neuro

A Wonderful Classic Story

Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2010

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In Around The World in Eighty Days, Jules Verne tells how Phileas Fogg, a very strict and unlikable English man, travels around the world in eighty days in order to win a bet concerning a claim he made at the Reform Club where he spent much of his time. With his servant Passepartout helping him, and with a detective who falsely believes that he is a bank robber at his heels, Fogg sets out to accomplish this remarkable feat. Along the way he encounters many mishaps, many of them caused by the detective, but good things also happen to him such as his rescuing of Aouda, an Indian woman, from the hands of the evil Brahman priests. A major calculation error is the difference between his winning and losing the bet, but either way he still gains valuable knowledge and has many great experiences during his journey.
Jules Verne is known for his exceptional writing and this book is one of his greatest works. This classic story is full of excitment and suspense as Verne masterfully develops the story from a simple plot into a more complex one. The 300-page book is suitable for any child who is old enough to read well and adults may also find it to be a good story. Jules Verne shows why he is so highly regarded as an author as he showcases his fascination with travel adventures in this more realistic version of his sometimes farfetched travel stories. Puffin uses good sized type in the book so it is easy to read no matter what the situation. With one of the greatest books of all time put into a wonderful format, what is there that is not to like? I recommend this book to everyone, especially children, as a wonderful, enjoyable, and satisfying read.

3 people found this helpful

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