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There are currently 21 member reviews
for Eighty Days
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Diane H. (San Diego, CA)
Around the World
An interesting non-fiction book about an attempt by two women in 1889 to circumnavigate the globe in less than the 80 days it took Jules Verne's fictional character, Phileas Fogg. I love reading about strong, unconventional women and this book delivers. The book is full of interesting facts and fascinating trivia but does become a cumbersome read at times because of it. A great idea to summarize the rest of the women's lives in the epilogue. Overall an enjoyable read.
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Robin M. (Newark, DE)
Eighty Days and more
Eighty Days is an enjoyable book, especially for history buffs and lovers of historical fiction. At times the book is written as if telling a grand adventure, and the reader may need to remember that he or she is reading a work of non-fiction. These are the best parts of the book, when one gets caught up in the travels and travails of Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland.
At other times the book is a more tedious read, as when the author continues with the ladies' lives well beyond the Eighty Days in the book's title, beciming less interesting as the interval increases.
On the whole, I enjoyed this book for it's telling of a forgotten historical event, or at least one that I do not recall learning about in my history classes in school. I will be suggesting it to my book club the next time we decide to read a non-fiction book.
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Viqui G. (State College, PA)
Eighty Days-Two Traveling Women
I was fascinated with the real story of Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Brisland. I especially liked that the author gave us a thorough background of these young women's childhood and early life leading up to their fame as world travelers. This well researched background makes it easier for the reader to understand how these independent women were able to develop their unique strength of character. This character made it possible for them to embark on a race around the world alone, in 1889, when women generally stayed at home and raised children. The historical detail about life in the 1889 era enriched the book significantly. It really brought the story to life. The only detractor to this fine book is that the author sometimes went overboard with his historical minutia so that the Bly/Brisland story became sidetracked.
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Wiliam H. (North Yarmouth, Maine)
Eighty Days
A race to remember yet long forgotten.
Matthew Goodman's Eighty Days provides a close up of the past as he recounts the spellbinding attempts of Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland to break Phileas Fogg's world-circling record set in Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days.
The classy pair prove without a doubt they were both winners.
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Timothy H. (Carlsbad, Ca)
Eighty Days, an Amazing Race of the Victorian Era
Eighty Days the new nonfiction book by Matthew Goodman gives readers an understanding of what life was like for the career woman as the impact of the industrial revolution began to take hold and shrink the Victorian world. Nelie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland, two women of different backgrounds, social class and degrees of backing from their respective editors raced in opposite directions around the globe to prove it could be done in less than the eighty days prescribed by Jules Verne. Much of Goodman's Eighty Days reads like a novel and the accounts are fascinating. Readers can't help but cheer for their favorite much as the readers of their day must have done.
While the depth of research done by Goodman is extensive, such level of detail tends to bog down the narrative. Forty pages of notes and bibliography may attest to the veracity of the text it appeals mostly to the historians that would applaud that level of detail. When Goodman is focused on the narrative the story is more compelling.
Overall, the book is a good read and can afford book clubs threads of discussions on: the treatment of women in professions, particularly journalism, then and now, the beginnings of globalization, and the joys, discoveries and frustrations of travel.
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Patricia T. (Fallbrook, CA)
Eighty Days
One of my favourite genres is non-fiction about women in history who achieved great things at a time when it was difficult for them to do so. I thought this would be a grand adventure in that category. It tells the story of a two directional race, one woman going west and one going east, to beat the fictional Phileas Fogg's Eighty Day journey around the world. But there was no sense of adventure or excitement, it was simply a travelogue, and the only suspense was whether the trains and steamships would arrive and leave on time. The westward journey of Bisland was a more enjoyable read, simply because she had an open mind and travelled with a positive attitude to all the new experiences she went through. Nellie Bly was the opposite, a bit of a snark, the eventual winner - a matter of record, not giving anything away here - but she was not an empathetic person. The book was well researched, with many interesting snippets of history throughout. A mini-bio of Pulitzer was of special interest, and the book gave a good over-view of the newspaper industry at the time.
What I would have really enjoyed is more personal detail about how Nellie Bly managed with no spare clothes. I suppose she didn't think this a worthy subject for her journal.
About page 300 I stopped reading and jumped straight to the Epiloque, one of the best parts, covering the rest of the two women's lives. Although I cannot rave about the book, they were certainly two very worthy subjects.
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Ange
slow read of a fast race
The book is very thorough on details which unfortunately made the book a slow and at sometimes cumbersome read. The subject is very interesting about all the trials a woman journalist had to go through to travel around the world but sometimes it felt just drawn out. I do think this would have an interest to someone wanting to learn more about women breaking through barriers.
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