Roger Cardinal

This was the earliest of the bks I've read on this subject &, as such, one dear to me. I reckon it's still a debate as to wch term is most appropriate to describe such work & the people who produce it. Visionary? Folk? Outsider? Insane? Whatever. Hopefully, no single term will ever dominate - let's avoid the over-simplification, shall we? This bk exposed me to all sorts of interesting folks like Adolph Wölffli, Clarence Schmidt, Heinrich Anton Müller, Augustin Lesage, August Neter, The show more Abbé Fouéré, etc.. For those of us who know that we're just staying one step ahead of the dreaded NORMALIZATION JUGGERNAUT OF INDIVIDUALIST PERSONALITY DESTRUCTION in our precipitous tight-rope walk above the dreaded abyss of the sickeningly congealed masses, the tales about & images from such folks is much-needed relief from the well 'nigh omnipresent Pavlovian advertising image spewing monster of Mammon. So there. show less

Phileas Fogg must be the most confident and calm man in literature. So many times he fell behind schedule but he did not panick at all. You cheer for him when he realised he had miscalculated the days and managed to dash to the gathering point in time to prove that he got back from traveling around the world in 80 days.

This volume contains both “Around the World in Eighty Days” and “Five Weeks in a Balloon,” which I did not realize until after I had bought it. Of the two novels, I liked the former better. Both books contained adventure and humor, but I think some of the things I found funny in “Five Weeks in a Balloon” were not meant to be funny. At the start of the story, Dr. Fergusson’s buddy Kennedy tries to talk his friend out of the crazy trip, and Fergusson basically shuts him down, show more saying that he has thought of all possible obstacles and already overcome them with science. Then, about halfway through, things start to go downhill and the plot twists quickly become ridiculous as unforeseen obstacles pop up with a vengeance. In “Around the World in Eighty Days,” I guessed the last plot twist early on, but that was okay. I enjoyed the characters in that book better, too. Fogg’s stoicism was much more intriguing than Fergusson’s sentimentality. Also, the rampant racism in “Five Weeks in a Balloon” greatly offended my modern sensibilities. In “Around the World in Eighty Days,” the prejudices of the time were quite apparent, but you could forgive them because of Fogg’s kind treatment of Aouda. In “Five Weeks in a Balloon,” there was no such redeeming factor, and the racism was much more pervasive and persistent. Overall, I found “Around the World in Eighty Days” to be a much more enjoyable read than and “Five Weeks in a Balloon.” show less

I have always loved classic children's literature and have read much of it. This particular book is one of my favorites and I think it is equally good when you it as an adult or as a child. The characters are engaging and realistic and the story draws you in.