Just reread this book after a 20 year gap. When I picked it up again, I remember vaguely liking Jules Verne stories, and the basic gist of the twist at the end. While the twist is the same, my appraisal of the book is now drastically different.

Characters: Extremely thin and one-dimensional. The hero of the book, Phileas Fogg, is portrayed as being cool and aloof, but really comes across as being an idiot who solves almost every problem by throwing money at it. He travels around the entire world, but sees pretty much none of it, because he prefers to spend his time playing whist. His servant, who gets more airtime, is pretty much a total idiot.

Narrative: Really, really thin. Not a lot happens in this book. And when things do happen, it's not really a big deal, because I really couldn't have given a toss about any of these people. Most of the text is spent describing the various places that they travel to, as opposed to advancing the plot.

Prose: Terrible. JVerne comes across as an anglophilic D-bag purporting to be an authority on all the various sites and cultures of the world, despite probably having never actually left his home country. Really, really annoying to read.

So yeah, I didn't like this book.