The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910 discussion
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Around the World in Eighty Days
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❀✿ Gem ✿❀ wrote: "Around the World in Eighty Days is an adventure novel written by renowned French author Jules Verne, published in 1873. It tells the story of Phileas Fogg, a resident of London, who makes a bet wit..."❀✿ Gem ✿❀ wrote: "Around the World in Eighty Days is an adventure novel written by renowned French author Jules Verne, published in 1873. It tells the story of Phileas Fogg, a resident of London, who makes a bet wit..."
Just a few more words and books about solo sailing around the world. Joshua Slocum was the first to do this, completing his voyage in Nov 1904. His was far from a non stop voyage and required among other things that he invent a method to steer his boat without anyone at the helm. (Something solo sailors have done to fit their particular needs) . Sailing Alone around the World.
Among my other favorites to do this were Sir Francis Charles Chichester KBE, who at just over 9 months was a record holding crcumnavigator (1966-1967). Long before he had attempted to fly solo around the world in a de Havilland Puss Moth. It was this plane that gave his boat the name, the Gypsy Moth The Lonely Sea and the Sky.
I stopped following Solo Sailors shortly after Chay Blythe did it backwards (Sailing against the prevailing winds ) 1971. He had previously rowed across the Atlantic in a two person open boat. Because of the pounding of his boat he had it built of, by and named: British Steel The Impossible Voyage
I could mention others but a solo sail, circumnavigation is an annual event http://goldengloberace.com/ggr/ this has caused the effort to lose some of its romance for me.
A far cry from Slocum having to change his entire planned route because he was chased out of the Med by North African Pirates.
ETA http://www.tropheejulesverne.org/en/
The Web Page for the Jules Verne Trophy
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I very much enjoyed your Background Information Gem and the additional notes on solo sailing from Phodrick.President Macron recently entertained President Trump to dinner at the Jules Verne Restaurant at the top of the Eiffel Tower:
https://www.lejulesverne-paris.com/en
This is a superb venue and if you can't afford dinner you can opt for cocktails in the Champagne Bar at the very top of the Tower.
BTW Much of the early construction of the Eiffel Tower was done by circus trapeze artistes because they were then the only people used to working at such heights.
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President Macron recently entertained President Trump to dinner at the Jules Verne Resta..."
Thank you Madge, that means a lot coming from you!
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President Macron recently entertained President Trump to dinner at the ..."
Gem this is outstanding. Do you want to take the research role?
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Then we will make sure that the future books are known early enough to give you the time you need.
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I saw the film in 1956. I wouldn't be impressed by it today, but it was a big deal then, huge and flashy with dozens of famous actors in walk-ons, and produced by the flamboyant larger-than-life Mike Todd. I'd like some background on Verne and his novel. I'll be back. ::leaves the room to check Britannica.com::
::staggers in carrying volume V of Britannica::https://www.britannica.com/biography/...
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Arou...
So he wrote the first science fiction novels, even before H.G. Wells.
The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910
Books mentioned in this topic
Sailing Alone around the World (other topics)The Lonely Sea and the Sky (other topics)
The Impossible Voyage (other topics)
In the middle of his writing career, Verne purchased a ship and began sailing around the British Isles and the Mediterranean, with many of his adventures in these ports providing inspiration for Around the World in Eighty Days. The idea for the novel came to him while reading a newspaper in a Paris café in which it was stated that a man could make a journey around the world in eighty days. He wondered how the inevitable crossing of the International Date Line would come into play, making the traveler gain or lose a day, and thus the idea for the novel was born.
The idea of traveling around the world in a certain amount of time was popular, and other writers had written about it before, dating back all the way to Greek traveler Pausanias writing "Around the World" around 100AD. An Italian traveler named Gemelli Careri also wrote a book in 1699 called Voyage Around the World, providing very detailed accounts of civilizations outside of Europe. In 1872 Thomas Cook set out on a journey around the world that took seven months, and documented it in a series of letters. This was just one year before Verne's novel was published, and likely provided some influence.
Around the World in Eighty Days has been adapted into film a number of times, with the 1956 version becoming particularly famous, followed by Disney's adaptation in 2004, which deviated significantly from the events in the book. The novel has been adapted for theatre, television, and radio as well. (from gradesaver.com)
I found this interesting:
Following Towle and d'Anver's 1873 English translation, many people have tried to follow in the footsteps of Fogg's fictional circumnavigation, often within self-imposed constraints:
In 1889, Nellie Bly undertook to travel around the world in 80 days for her newspaper, the New York World. She managed to do the journey within 72 days, meeting Verne in Amiens. Her book Around the World in Seventy-Two Days, became a best seller.
In 1903, James Willis Sayre, a Seattle theatre critic and arts promoter, set the world record for circling the earth using public transport: 54 days, 9 hours, and 42 minutes.
In 1908, Harry Bensley, on a wager, set out to circumnavigate the world on foot wearing an iron mask. The journey was abandoned, incomplete, at the outbreak of World War I in 1914.
In 1984, Nicholas Coleridge emulated Fogg's trip, taking 78 days, He wrote a book titled Around the World in 78 Days.
In 1988, Monty Python alumnus Michael Palin took a similar challenge without using aircraft as a part of a television travelogue, called Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days. He completed the journey in 79 days and 7 hours.
Since 1993, the Jules Verne Trophy is given to the boat that sails around the world without stopping and with no outside assistance, in the shortest time.
In 2009, twelve celebrities performed a relay version of the journey for the BBC Children In Need charity appeal.
In 2014, the Optimistic Traveler[4] team consisting of Muammer Yilmaz and Milan Bihlmann completed the "80 Days Challenge", a trip around the world without using money, as a first step of their charity campaign for education in Haiti. They finished the journey in 79 days.
In 2015, a group of Italian travelers, led by Luigi Cavallito, creator of The Steroteller, repeated the journey that Verne had inspired. The members of the group were all millennials born between the 1980s and 2000; the project aimed to describe the life, projects and dreams of that generation. They started their journey from the Reform Club on October 2, 2015 and they came back to London on December 21, 80 days later. They stopped in Paris, Turin, Athens, Cairo, Alexandria, Dubai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hong Kong, Manila, Tokyo, Honolulu, San Francisco, New York and Dublin. Accompanying Luigi Cavallito were Alessio Nicastro, Andrea Cavallo Perin, Andrea Dutto, and Didie Caria. (from Wikipedia. The entire Wikipedia entry can be found here.)
Biographical information about Jules Verne can be found on Wikipedia and Encylopedia Britannica.
A digital copy of this book is free on the Gutenberg Project.
Please feel free to add more information below.