AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY (FREE AUDIO) L. SKILLS - Couverture souple

In this novel, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a £20,000 wager (equivalent to £1,600,000 of today) set by his friends at the Reform Club.  It is the eleventh of the Voyages Extraordinaires, the 54-novel-series written by Verne, which in his own words intended “to conclude in story form my whole survey of the world’s surface and the heavens; there are still left corners of the world to which my thoughts have not yet penetrated ... I have dealt with the moon, but a great deal remains to be done.” His attention to detail and scientific trivia, and his sense of wonder and exploration, are the backbone of the novels, in which the reader could acquire knowledge of geology, biology, astronomy, paleontology, oceanography, etc., as well as to travel to the exotic locations and cultures of the world through the adventures of Verne's protagonists. Some of the best known and most popular novels in history are part of this series, including Five Weeks in a Balloon (1863); Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864); Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea (1869–70); From the Earth to the Moon (1865); Around the World in Eighty Days (1873), etc.