Book review of “Around The World In Eighty Days."

Around the world in 80 days is a novel written by a French writer, Jules Verne. Jules Verne is one of the fathers of science fiction. He wrote many fictions adventure novels, and “Around the world in eighty days” is one of them.

The story is set in the 1870s, in London. The main character Phileas Fogg is a British gentleman who lives in London. As usual, he goes to the reform club and plays his favorite game, whist with his partners. Then, they have a conversation about a bank robbery that happened recently in England. They start an argument during the conversation as they try to figure out the bank robber's identity. Phileas Fogg claims that it’s possible to travel around the world in only eighty days. He accepts the challenge and makes a bet with them. Then, Phileas Fogg starts his adventure with his french manservant Passepartout to travel the world in eighty days.

They travel from London to Bombay, Calcutta, Hong Kong, Yokohama, San Francisco, New York and go back to London. Since the setting of this story is in the 19th century, they can only use a few transportations like rail and steamer. So it takes them a long time to travel to other places. For example, it takes them 22 days to transport from Yokohama to San Francisco. And in a chapter, Passepartout is separated from his master. They cannot contact each other because they don’t have a cellphone in the past. I can’t relate to most of these parts because nowadays transportation is a lot convenient compared to the past and technology is becoming more advanced. But I think this is what makes the story more interesting and exciting to read.

There are a few parts that I like about this story: the characters are from different places. For example, Phileas Fogg and Fix are from England, Passepartout is from France, Aouda is from India. My favorite character is Phileas Fogg. Fogg is a mysterious man in this story, he is always emotionless, and he doesn’t show any expression no matter what happened. He is constantly calm and steady when bad things happened. Instead of worrying about the situation, he calmly finds out a solution to solve the problems. His true personality is revealed as the story goes on. He seems cold but is a man with a big heart. He decides to rescue Passepartout and the other passengers when they are taken prisoners by the Sioux without hesitation, even though he might lose the bet because of the delay of the trip. He is brave enough to accept any challenge and the way he treats problems inspires me a lot because I easily get affected when something terrible happened. I often let myself drawn in negative thoughts and emotions. Passepartout is also one of my favorite characters. He has a bright and likable personality. He is very loyal to his master, and many things he did leave a deep impression. The way he talks and behaves is amusing, so it’s always fun to read.

The author also adds more characters, such as the detective, Fix, and the pretty Indian lady, Aouda, to add more color. Fix assumes that Fogg is the bank robber, so he follows him from London to arrest him. Fix plays an antagonistic role in this story and plays many tricks to ruin Fogg’s plan to travel the world in 80 days. However, unlike the villain role in another story, Fix has a very likable personality. He is only doing his duty as a detective, even though he makes a few mistakes, but he is still a good person as he helps Phileas Fogg solve the problem.

The story is presented humorously, there are many funny parts, and many chapters ended unexpectedly. I think it is a good way for people to take a peek at other countries’ cultures. The writer wrote about the view, people, and culture when the characters arrived at such places as Yokohama, Hong Kong, and many other places. The description of these places is very detailed. It also helps people learn the historical background and geographic knowledge of different areas in an exciting way without getting boring.

I am attracted by the storylines because there are a few plot twists in the story. For example, they thought they were five minutes late to their London destination, but it turned out to be a misunderstanding. At the end of the story, they can get to the reform club on time. The story ended as Fogg gets married to Aouda.

In conclusion, I highly recommend this book. It is a book full of imagination and inspiration. You will never get bored as soon as you started reading this book. I hope people can pick up this book and create their journey to explore the unknown world.