Modernist Circumnavigations: Around the World in Jules Verne's Wake by Kevin Riordan
This book shows how Jules VernesAround the World in Eighty Dayschanged the global imagination. Through his novel, the world was converted into a personal itinerary, scaled to the individual traveller and, by extension, to the individual reader. Exploring Vernes modern legacy, this study shows how subsequent generations of artists and writers took onAround the World in Eighty Daysas an adaptable guidebook to the modern world. It investigates how Vernes work leads its reader beyond the book itself. It considers Vernes place in world literature, traces some of the many real reenactments of Vernes itinerary, and recalls the theatrical adaptations of Vernes story.Published to coincide with the 500thanniversary of the first circumnavigation and the 150thanniversary of Vernes novel, this book offers new insights into the largely overlooked influence of Verne on twentieth-century literature and culture and on the field of global modernism.