Around the World in Eighty Days

Title: Around the World in Eighty Days

Author: Jules Verne

Pages: 6 discs

Genre: Fiction

Grade: A-

Synopsis: Phileas Fogg is a man that does everything with exactness. He makes a bet of 20,000 pounds with his friends that he can travel around the world in eighty days. In just over an hour he departs London for Dover with his newly hired French servant Passepartout. In Suez, a detective thinks that he recognizes Mr. Fogg as a notorious bank robber and begins to follow him and try to hinder him on his journey while he waits for a warrant to arrive from London. Amazingly, Phileas Fogg and his servant continue on their journey by train, steamship, sailboat, sledge and elephant (but not by hot air balloon - which is even shown on the cover of many copies of the book).

My Review: I used to love reading Jules Verne when I was younger. I'm pretty sure that I've read this book before, but it was quite a bit different than I remembered. I loved hearing about the different places that Fogg and companions passed through, I even pulled out my trusty world atlas to follow them on their journey as I listened. One of the highlights is when the travelers are on the transcontinental railroad in the United States. Passing through Utah, Passepartout is given a lesson on Mormons. He listens to a Mormon missionary speak in one of the railroad cars and hears a discourse on the Mormon religion. For what it's worth, I think that Verne did a very nice job of describing the LDS beliefs as they were known during the time period.