Around the World in Eighty Days

1872

I had originally listed The Mysterious Island as my next book, but decided to skip it when I realized that no libraries in Colorado apparently had it in stock. With so many other unread books on my shelf, many borrowed or received as gifts from friends, I am often unwilling to hunt down and pay for more reading material. Somehow I completely missed the fact that Mysterious Island featured Nemo and the home harbor of the Nautilaus! I will be sure to hunt it down when I return to the nineteenth century...

Instead I moved on to another famous Verne novel, Around the World in Eighty Days. This book only garnered three stars in my online review, and only nine words in my comments: "Not Jules Verne's best work, but a fun ride." Not exactly an in-depth analysis of a story, that while light hearted and fun, does hold a place in the lexicon of pop culture and time-stamped the sunset of the British Empire and the dawn of the industrial revolution. I was probably on my lunch break at work.

The only comment some have on this story is that there is no hot-air balloon trip in the novel, whereas the movie added a balloon flight and forever tied the two together. I find this oft-repeated and nearly cliche comment worth mentioning because so much of the fiction written or taking place in this era to be fascinated by hot-air balloons. Verne did write a story earlier about a long trip in a balloon, but in this story the protagonist, Phineas Fogg, writes off the idea as impractical. The most interesting occurance of a balloon flight in my reading takes place in the Riverworld series, flown by Jack London and Tom Mix. I placed that timeline starting at 1890- but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Around the World is not science fiction, but is an obvious celebration of technological advances in travel, namely the transcontinental railroad and the Suez Canal. What makes the story spicy, however, is the intriguing nature of Fogg's gamble, the inclusion of a bounty hunter on his tail, and some very far-fetched stories of Indian tribes, opium dens, mutinies and a battle against Sioux Indians not far from where I live here in Colorado. Whereas Nemo remained dark and mysterious in the fantasy of his world, Fogg is cartoonish throughout his adventures in the "real world". If Verne has a reputation of writing children's books, it's easy to see why from this example.

Around the World in Eighty Days is good fun, easy to read, and fit in well with my timeline perspective. In comparison to the many other things I have read and will read, though, it doesn't come close to the recommended reading list.

Finding Nemo

1868: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

It's not rocket science to know that my primary reason for including this book in my timeline-reading list was Nemo's awesome inclusion in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. That also happens to make it a convenient kick off point for my book series in this blog. However, I was also motivated by the fact that Jules Verne had helped create the GENRE of science-fiction, and I had dismissed his work as a child. Submarines were obviously not quite so exciting over 100 years later, and the Disney movie was a bit of a turn off for me, even as a kid. Did Alan Moore help me to see old Victorian fiction in a different light? Hell yes.

I rated this book five stars on my Facebook review sites, and I won't back down much from that. LOVED IT. There are definately parts that drag, but you have to admit the pages and pages of descriptions of sea life do lend credibility to the viewpoint of the narrator, which in turn makes a novel that at the time was pretty far-fetched seem like a true story.

Nemo is less a villian than an anti-hero, and although I would have enjoyed more action/conflict as opposed to twenty page recitations of marine life, the inclusion of Atlantis and some of the other trips of the Nautilus seem like Nemo was ready-made for a cross-stream fictional universe.

What did you think of the book? Are you a little more motivated to check it out now if you haven't yet read it? Let me know.