Around the World in 80 Days
Junior Edition
Publisher Description
An Apple Books Classic edition.
Phileas Fogg is a sensible, well-off man who uncharacteristically accepts a huge bet that he can’t travel around the world in 80 days. Along with his valet Passepartout, Fogg sets about to do the impossible via boats, trains, and even an elephant.
Since its publication in 1872, Around the World remains one of the most famous adventure stories out there. Jules Verne has a gift for weaving entire worlds with words, and in Fogg he’s crated a hero for anyone who’s ever dreamed of leaving their humdrum life behind.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The sounds of a chugging steam engine and the orchestral movie-score strains that open this program set the stage for Dale's top-drawer performance of this much-loved adventure story. As one could set a clock by eccentric Phileas Fogg's daily routine, Fogg shocks everyone when he bets his personal fortune that he can complete the trip proposed in the book's title and then sets off on the wild trip. Listeners can almost envision a twinkle in Dale's eye as he delivers the lines of Fogg's traveling companion and man-servant Passepartout in an entertaining, though not over-the-top, French accent. Dale's vibrant, never-hurried reading is pleasantly punctuated by background music of the era at chapter breaks. A bonus afterword notes that this new edition pays homage to Listening Library's very first recording in 1955, of this same book. The added material also mentions the historical and social context of Verne's writings about other cultures, the tone of which would be considered insensitive or offensive by many people today. Ages 8-up.
