Around the World in Eighty Days

Around the World in Eighty Days (Le tour du monde en quatre-vingt jours) is a classic adventure novel by 19th-century French author Jules Verne. In the story, English adventurer Phileas Fogg, and his new butler, Passepartout, attempt to circumnavigate the late Victorian world in 80 days on a bet set by the Reform Club.

Due to the age of the book, it is now out of copyright, and may be downloaded from Project Gutenberg from http://promo.net/cgi-promo/pg/t9.cgi?entry=103 .

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.

In 1988, Monty Python alumnus Michael Palin took a similar challenge without using aircraft as a part of a television travelogue[?]. He too completed within the deadline.

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The book was adapted to film in 1956, a Hollywood fun movie with a huge cast. Many famous performers play bit parts, and part of the pleasure in this movie is playing "spot the star"; the lead roles in the movie were played by David Niven and Cantinflas.

The movie earned five Oscars:

• Best Picture - Michael Todd[?], producer
• Best Cinematography, Color - Lionel Lindon[?]
• Best Film Editing - Gene Ruggiero[?] and Paul Weatherwax[?]
• Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture - Victor Young[?]
• Best Writing, Best Screenplay, Adapted - John Farrow[?], S.J. Perelman[?], and James Poe[?]

It was nominated for an additional three Oscars

• Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color - Ken Adam[?], Ross Dowd[?], and James W. Sullivan[?]
• Best Costume Design, Color - Miles White[?]
• Best Director - Michael Anderson

External Links

• Full text available in multiple formats (http://pdreader.org/details.asp?id=103)