Usborne Illustrated Around the World in Eighty Days

by Usborne Publishing, Daniele Dickman (Illustrator), Jules Verne (Original author)

The eccentric Phileas Fogg is risking his fortune in a race against time. With his servant, Passepartout, he sets out to circle the globe — without a moment to spare for sight-seeing, storms, or delays, for ambushes, rescues, or adventure… This classic tale by Jules Verne is presented here in a new translation, complete and unabridged, with illustrations by Daniele Dickmann.

Illustrated Originals
Beautifully illustrated, complete, and unabridged stories in paperback version.

Genres: Classics, Travel, Fiction

448 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2019

About the author

Usborne Publishing, often called Usborne Books, is a British publisher of children's books founded in 1973 by Peter Usborne.

Reviews

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun story. While Fogg definitely has some worldly qualities he needs to overcome, he learns the most important lesson of life and truly understands joy.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun before. I was laughing out loud one minute, on the edge of my seat, biting my nails the next.

[Jason Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Formulaic, yes. But more importantly, an engaging, well written, well paced adventure story with an excellent cast of well developed characters. And a time capsule at that! Jules Verne offers readers what today's historians and literary critics (think: Edward Said) will identify as a quintessential Anglo worldview of that era, which frames the world through which Phileas Fogg traverses and frames what we today recognize as a rather specific and defined period in time (not an empire sans sunset), punctuated by all of the assumptions and presumptions that make Verne's premise and plot completely realistic.

If readers today paused for a moment to ponder the utter novelty in Verne's 1872 of long distance communication and travel, of true urbanization, the suddenness of the new industrial revolution's impulses and technology's ability to challenge people's understanding of what "noon" means and the new thing called **time zones**, I think that even the mundanity of Verne's details (e.g. Passepartout's pocket watch, gaining a day by traveling east, etc) can be made to feel more wondrous to us today. Marx had said not long before this that "all that is solid melts into air". Much of this modernity was decentering and frightening to its participants (not unlike today), and I think Around the World demonstrates much of what humanity found exhilarating about modernity.

I'm very sorry it's taken me so long to read this classic. It was pure joy from page to page. I might be biased, since to me the general 1870-1920s belle epoch / high modernism is the most fascinating historical period, and now I think that Around the World offers a fantastic intro to that period both chronologically and topically.

[Erik Koster · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book to my son because we had time due to The Rona. It's such a weird book. Parts that are really quite good, coupled with parts filled with endless paragraphs of boring details. I ended up having to skip over large parts of it just to keep him interested sorta like in the book version of Princess Bride. 3 stars because it's a "classic" and I love Jules Verne, but almost gave it two. Maybe I will one day, I don't know.

[Sarah Humble · Rating 4 out of 5]

While Around the World in Eighty Days felt long at times (what classic novel doesn’t?), it was a fascinating story, of which I liked the end the most! This is a colorful edition, newly translated and unabridged. I would definitely recommend it!

[Jurgis Karpus · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful adventure and celebration of science and technology. A bit dated here and there with its colonial worldview, but if you let that be without paying too much attention to it, this is a great inspiring story.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slow and steady but kids and I all enjoyed this read aloud!

[Corrie Hawke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this as a kickoff to our world unit for home school. We really enjoyed the adventure. This book is beautiful but it is heavy. Tons of opportunities for geography and vocabulary with this book.

[Deborah Knox · Rating 4 out of 5]

😊

[Ashlee · Rating 5 out of 5]

You really can’t go wrong with this classic.

[Daciana Washburn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this to the kids - they gave it 5 stars (they give every book we read to them 5 stars). It was enjoyable but more of a 3 star or even 3.5 star for me

[Maya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just had this book on my bookshelf, and I thought I should read it, but I thought I was going to hate it. Well, actually, it was quite good, and I wish I had read this earlier. I am super impressed with how captivating the story was. There would be a twist here and there that kept my eyes glued to the page. Though some parts were slow, it was good enough for me that I finished this in a day.