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A review by elerireads
Le Tour du monde en 80 jours by Jules Verne
3.0
Ah this was good fun. I read it years ago in my childhood binge-reading Jules Verne phase, but all I could remember was the clever ending (well it was clearly extremely clever to me when I was 10). I watched the BBC adaptation of this over Christmas and was curious about how closely it followed the book. Also I read something about the original English translations not being brilliant and obviously I'd previously read it in English. Anyway, thought I'd give it a reread.
The answer to my question about the BBC series is that it's completely different. The overall premise and their names are the same, I suppose? For a lot of it I can see why - there's a lot of racism and stereotypes in there that would in no way be acceptable on TV. The human-sacrificing Indians, the Chinese opium dens, the savage and violent native Americans... You can tell Verne must have done a fair bit of research on all the places and then was really pleased with himself so had to reference as many things as possible.
I definitely preferred the book version of Passepartout though. I found the idea of him wanting a quiet life and deliberately choosing to work for Phileas Fogg because he never did anything unexpected, then immediately having to go on a trip round the world very entertaining. On the other hand, Mrs. Aouda had zero character at all!?! And then randomly (SPOILER) Fogg decides to marry her at the end. Also the ending on the note of 'but the best thing he got out of the trip was a wife' was just a bit bleugh.
The answer to my question about the BBC series is that it's completely different. The overall premise and their names are the same, I suppose? For a lot of it I can see why - there's a lot of racism and stereotypes in there that would in no way be acceptable on TV. The human-sacrificing Indians, the Chinese opium dens, the savage and violent native Americans... You can tell Verne must have done a fair bit of research on all the places and then was really pleased with himself so had to reference as many things as possible.
I definitely preferred the book version of Passepartout though. I found the idea of him wanting a quiet life and deliberately choosing to work for Phileas Fogg because he never did anything unexpected, then immediately having to go on a trip round the world very entertaining. On the other hand, Mrs. Aouda had zero character at all!?! And then randomly (SPOILER) Fogg decides to marry her at the end. Also the ending on the note of 'but the best thing he got out of the trip was a wife' was just a bit bleugh.