I clearly remember what I was thinking when I spotted an omnibus edition of three Jules Verne novels on one of my crossword trips. I said to myself, "I want to see what science fiction looked like a hundred years ago". Having had this wholly remarkable thought (yes, I am all for self admiration :p), I purchased the book, set it in an obscure corner of my shelf and it just stayed there, gathering a good amount of dust in the process.
That was a year or so ago, and it reappeared a few days back, when I could not find anything to read (despite those stacks I keep mentioning). Started reading Around the world in Eighty days. I had watched a movie with the same name, starring Jacky Chen, and remember not liking it. The premise is simple, a man (in 1872) decides to go around the world in 80 days and the story revolves around how he goes about it. If you want a sophisticated story, with intricate plot development and complex personalities, this might not be the right book for you. But if you want a simple, enjoyable story, that makes you keep reading, this is the very thing. That, and it's an interesting look at how the world was in late nineteenth century, like the modes of transport and the routes, the customs and political scenarios, seen through the eyes of an European. Mr.Verne seems to have been intimately familiar with the geographical world, giving exact distances, times for journeys and so on (Did you know he had ran away from his home as a cabin boy on a trading ship in his youth?). To use one of his own expressions, he must have traveled everywhere, at least in spirit. There is very little in the story to qualify it for the label science fiction, but that doesn't stop it from being an enjoyable read. And you learn a thing or two, like what Cisco meant before it referred to the networking giant.
It is available online through Project Gutenberg.
Enjoy!!
That was a year or so ago, and it reappeared a few days back, when I could not find anything to read (despite those stacks I keep mentioning). Started reading Around the world in Eighty days. I had watched a movie with the same name, starring Jacky Chen, and remember not liking it. The premise is simple, a man (in 1872) decides to go around the world in 80 days and the story revolves around how he goes about it. If you want a sophisticated story, with intricate plot development and complex personalities, this might not be the right book for you. But if you want a simple, enjoyable story, that makes you keep reading, this is the very thing. That, and it's an interesting look at how the world was in late nineteenth century, like the modes of transport and the routes, the customs and political scenarios, seen through the eyes of an European. Mr.Verne seems to have been intimately familiar with the geographical world, giving exact distances, times for journeys and so on (Did you know he had ran away from his home as a cabin boy on a trading ship in his youth?). To use one of his own expressions, he must have traveled everywhere, at least in spirit. There is very little in the story to qualify it for the label science fiction, but that doesn't stop it from being an enjoyable read. And you learn a thing or two, like what Cisco meant before it referred to the networking giant.
It is available online through Project Gutenberg.
Enjoy!!
5 comments:
There was a version of the book for kids that I used to read as a kid (yes, several times). My favourite parts were where he misses some ship (steamer, i think) and how he arranges for an alternative. And of course, the end.
Gutenberg is such a fantastic place isnt it?
@Vinaya
Ohk.. Never heard of the kid version (and not sure whether the one I read was a kid version or not)
yes, the end is fundoo...
@Rakesh
Yes Sir.. truly fantastic..
me too read the "kid version", respectably known as abridged version and his implacable attitude impressed me the most.
hmm.. I now think I read the non-kid version.. it says unabridged..
yep and Mr.Verne seems to like such characters.. there's a similar one in 'Journey to the centre of the earth' that I am currently reading..
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