Around the World in 80 Days (Classics Illustrated)

Great synopsis and enjoyable read in illustration form. Had these 60 years ago as a kid in comic form. These are better as the cover and pages are sturdy, not like comic paper.

Let me start by saying that if this is any indication of Jim Dale's other audio book work he is indeed worthy of all the praise he's been given! He has such a wonderful, full, warm voice for narrating and his character voices are incredible! Each character is varied and unique, the voice perfectly fitting of the character's personality. I can hardly wait to listen to another audio book he's narrated.As for the story itself I was quite charmed and pleased. I really had little knowledge as to what the story was about aside from someone trying to go around the world in 80 days. But there was so much more to it and so many adventures and character traits I wasn't expecting.Phileas Fogg is an upright British gentleman who does the same thing every day, always routine, always predictable. Fogg is calm, collected and never gets ruffled about anything. So when he accepts his fellow card players' challenge (and bet) to go around the world in 80 days, it is quite unnerving to his new servant Passeportout, who's been looking forward to the quite life, living in London. What ensues is one adventure after another as Fogg, Passeportout, and a collection of other characters garnered along the journey, try to make it around the world in 80 days.My biggest "complaint" (if there is one) is that sometimes the descriptions of locations got to be a bit long. I think it was mostly when a lot of distance was covered and not a lot of adventure in between, because it felt like description after description without a lot of character development in between. This is really my only complaint though, and it didn't happen very often. Instead, I found myself growing increasingly fond of these characters, smiling when they would overcome their toils, and frowning when they would loose a few days due to a delay. And, I must admit, the characters ended up being far more in-depth than I originally expected. And Verne had me guessing until the very end what, indeed, the final outcome would be.There are but a two plot points I'm still a little unsure about, but I can't say without spoiling, and they are fairly minor, all things considered.Fogg's un-wavering sense of calm could, I imagine, be a tad annoying to some, but Passeportout more than evens things out, and personally, I rather admired Fogg's ability to take everything in stride, working out how to solve a problem without getting flustered or angry.I'd also like to make a comment about the political correctness of this book. I know there's discussion that it's not PC at all. But really, I found it pretty advanced, especially given the time when it was written. To me, it was clear that the characters were accepting of other cultures and religions, people and races. Yes, some things are dramatized, but it is an adventure book, so it's likely we'd run into the "bad eggs" of various cultures (including American and British). But really, overall I think the book does a pretty good job of respecting other cultures and raising awareness of how invasive Britain was into the cultures across the Middle East and Asia.So, all in all there were a few flaws, but it's still definitely worth the read. Or listen - Dale is not to be missed! And once the question is raised, how can you not want to know if it IS possible to make it around the world in 80 days?

Good well done version in this format.

Grandson loved it

Stories are fine, but the books are made flimsy.