Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne

In this classic adventure story, a wealthy gentleman, Phileas Fogg, makes a bet that he can travel around the world in eighty days. Fogg and his servant set off immediately, determined to win this race against time. Little do they know they aren''t making the journey alone.... Fogg has been fingered as the culprit in a bank robbery, and a detective in hot pursuit is trailing them as they cross every continent.



Review:
My first classic of the year! I have been waiting for a long time to pick up this story and I am so glad I did! I have to say, it was not anything like I expected it to be. I had it in my head that the main character, Phileas, was traveling around the world in a hot air balloon, but this was not the case. I was not in the least disappointed by this fact. This book was even better than I expected it to be. I find classics can be hard to have expectations for, I really only know what I've heard and they are all so different that you can't even begin to imagine how it will be, but I am always surprised by the imaginations of these writers. Maybe because they were the ones who were starting it all. It feels like today all books are the same or there are SO many different books and series with the same premise that it feels as though no one has an imagination anymore. I love reading about ideas, such as traveling around the world, and how fascinating an idea it is for people of the time. For us in modern times, this doesn't seem like such a big deal because you can just hop on an airplane and off you go!
I really enjoyed the characters in this book and found myself rooting for them the entire way through. It was so easy to whip my way through this book (it usually takes me considerably longer to read classics), but I did not want to put this one down. It was adventurous and fun and I felt as though I were experiencing it myself.
If you are into adventure writing (or classics for that matter) you should put this on your list of must-reads. It is a fantastically fun story and I can't wait to read it again sometime. I give this book a 4/5.

Happy Reading!

Next Review: Death of a Kitchen Diva by Lee Hollis