Around the World in Eighty Days (Bantam Classics)

Product Details

Author: Jules Verne

Series: Bantam Classics

Mass Market Paperback: 208 pages

Publisher: Bantam Classics; English Language edition (April 1, 1984)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0553213563

ISBN-13: 978-0553213560

Product Dimensions: 4.3 x 0.5 x 6.8 inches

Overview

A fastidious English gentleman makes a remarkable wager - he will travel around the world in eighty days or forfeit his life's savings. Thus begins Jules Verne's classic 1872 novel, which remains unsurpassed in sheer story-telling entertainment and pure adventure. Phileas Fogg and his faithful manservant, Jean Passepartout, embark on a fantastic journey into a world filled with danger and beauty - from the exotic shores of India, where the heroic travelers rescue a beautiful Raja's wife from ritual sacrifice, to the rugged American frontier, where their train is ambushed by an angry Sioux tribe. Fogg's mission is complicated by an incredible case of mistaken identity that sends a Scotland Yard detective in hot pursuit. At once a riveting race against time and an action-packed odyssey into the unknown, Around the World in Eighty Days is a masterpiece of adventure fiction that has captured the imaginations of generations of readers - and continues to enthrall us today.

In 1872 Phileas Fogg wins a bet by traveling around the world in seventy-nine days, twenty-three hours, and fifty-seven minutes.

Meet the Author

Jules Verne was born into a family with a seafaring tradition in Nantes, France in 1828. Verne was sent to Paris to study law, but once there, he quickly fell in love with the theater. He was soon writing plays and opera librettos, and his first play was produced in 1850. When he refused his father's entreaties to return to Nantes and practice law, his allowance was cut off, and he was forced to make his living by selling stories and articles. Soon he was turning out imaginative stories such as Five Weeks in a Balloon (1863), Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), and From the Earth to the Moon (1865), which were immensely popular all over the world. His ability to envision the next stage in man's technological progress produced 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870) and Michael Strogoff (1876). His biggest success came with Around the World in Eighty Days (1872). Verne's books made him famous and rich. In 1876, he bought a large steam yacht in which he could write more comfortably than on shore. His books were widely translated, dramatized, and later filmed. He died in Amiens in 1905.