As someone who's trying to get back into reading classics, I found this a really good entry point because the book is short, the chapters are short and the story is quite fun. I really enjoyed this book!

It's about Phileas Fogg, a rich gentleman who makes a bet that he can travel around the world in eighty days. He and his manservant, Passepartout, encounter many people and obstacles on the way, including a Metropolitan Police officer who suspects Fogg of bank robbery.

There were some funny parts - I was amused by the whole premise to be honest. A couple of things jarred with me, for instance Verne used the word 'phlegmatic' at least seven times to describe Phileas, which I found repetitive. The presentation of Native Americans as savages also made me blink but I accepted it as typical of the attitude of the time.

The edition I read was Penguin's Clothbound Classic, which had multiple footnotes on every page. This could be seen as a help or hinderance but I occasionally dipped into the footnotes when needed.