Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World

Half way through the book so far. Filled with historical anecdotes about the period as well as some of the countries visited. Coming from the Pittsburgh, PA area, I found the references to the Western PA immigrant work ethic and strife poignant, especially when I learned of the plight of the coal stokers on the ocean-going ships. Their lives were misery and short with black lung, made worse when a ship was pushing for a record time crossing from the Far East to CA or across the Atlantic. The contrast between Elizabeth Bisland's perspective and Bly' s was interesting from the never-say-die attitude and both young women taking on a world circumferential passage over 100 years ago. I have two daughters, one who lives overseas and one who lived in India for a year. It brought home the risk of travel with unknowns and the spunk of Bly and Bisland. I will read passages to my grand children this summer!

I thought it would be very interesting to read about the people and places Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland traveled to in 1889 in their quest to go around the world in less than 80 days. I like historic non-fiction and this fills the bill!

Although I am not finished reading yet...I am totally enjoying the story...2 incredible women undertaking an incredible journey.
Love the author's style...learned a bit of history as well as enjoying a good story!

While I learned a bit about the newspaper business of days gone by, I didn't find this book engaging. It's fairly shallow in character development--more of the "declaring what the people are about" mode and telling us their biography but not very much SHOWING and developing the how and why of it. If you like travel tales with a little light history, this may be your book, but be sure to pull out the map provided at the back so you can translate place names with their modern equivalents and understand who is where and why.

Excellent book. The author brought the time of the 1890's to life. One could see the scenery, the people, and the communications of the times very vividly. The "race around the world" was exciting and captivating.

Loved the American history that was in the story and
the race itself I found what happened to them after
the race and later in life to be very interesting.
Book did get a little tedious at times and would have liked
more about the actual places the women visited.
4 in my book club did not like the authors writing
or even the story line.

I love books about American history, women, and exploration, so this should have been right up my alley. To some extent, the books delivers what it promises. I now know all about the circumstances that led up to Nellie Bly's legendary quest to break the record Jules Verne established in "80 Days Around the World", I have a deeper understanding of the state of U.S. journalism in the 1880s, and I possess more information than I'll ever need to know about 1880s transportation. On the other hand, here's what the book doesn't deliver:

* A description of the world in 1889. Despite apparently ample time spent relaxing on trains and deck chairs, neither Nellie Bly nor Elizabeth Bisland seems to have invested much effort reporting on what they observed as they travelled around the world. What an opportunity wasted! If this is one reason you’re considering reading the book, don’t even bother.

* A deeper admiration for "female womanhood". Though the author claims this was one of the outcomes of the adventure, I can't say I was terribly impressed by either women. Their arrangements were made solely by men, and when last-minute changes had to be made, often it was men who saw to this as well. In short, pretty much all our intrepid "globe-girdlers" had to do was show up at the right stations at the right times. Not exactly a bold statement of female intelligence or resourcefulness.

* A deeper understanding of what made Nellie Bly "tick". The author seems content to take her at her word, but I found this highly unsatisfying as Nellie Bly was above all a storyteller, not above tailoring the details of her story to suit her audience; therefore, we really can't trust what she says about herself or her motives. Would have loved insight into the extent to which her legitimate boldness stemmed from journalistic zeal, a risk-taking nature, a determination to defy stereotype, and/or simple necessity – she was the family’s sole breadwinner, after all.

It would appear that this is one of those instances where the myth really does trump reality, a fact that Matthew Goodman cannot entirely overcome despite his narrative zeal. Indeed, maybe a little LESS narrative zeal might have been more appropriate. Feel like the author spent way too much time speculating what the women were "probably" feeling at each step along the way, which irked me because his "speculations" appeared to be based on guesswork (rather than any actual data) and because they often felt stereotypical and a tad condescending. ("If she's a woman, she must have been worried about her mother, so I'll put that in!" you can almost hear the author thinking.)

Ironically, I now find myself both overwhelmed with detail about the journey itself, but craving to know more about the true sentiments and sensations of the women who undertook it.

Five stars because there is so much information in this book that I did not know. ;-)

By the 1880s, the world was getting smaller. Communication was facilitated by the telegraph and soon the telephone would take over. Transportation was almost reliable with regular railroad and steamship schedules. We were on the verge of the the world we would know today, however, during this period mass media was comprised of newspapers and magazines. Daily newspapers competed with each other for the most readers and to beat the competition they needed the sensational stories possible. If they couldn't find them, sometimes they created them.

In 1873 Jules Verne published his novel "Around the World in 80 days" and it was a hit worldwide. The story is still popular today, with a couple of noteworthy movie interpretations. By 1889 there were those who thought that the record set by Verne's fictional adventurer, Phileas Fogg could be beaten. One of those was newspaper magnate Joseph Pulitzer, owner of the New York World. Pulitzer chose to send his only female feature reporter, Nellie Bly, on an around the world trip. The goal was to make it back to New York in 75 days.

Nellie Bly was a ground breaking investigative reporter. In a Victorian era in which society viewed women as not to bright, not to tough, and better off staying at home, Nellie Bly was one of the few female reporters who were not chained to the society column. She first gained notoriety by going undercover to expose corruption in an insane asylum. Pulitzer sent her on her trip heading east across the Atlantic on November 14, 1889.

Unknown to Bly, on the same day The Cosmopolitan magazine sent there own female traveler, a literary essayist by the name of Elizabeth Bisland. Thinking there would be an advantage, Bisland's editor sent her west. The race was on and the world couldn't read enough about it.

I admit that when I think about the 1880s, my mind immediately jumps to the wild west, or the Indian wars. I should never limit myself like that, and I wish I read this book sooner. "Eighty Days" is an enjoyable read that will expose the reader to what life was like along the travelers' routes during this time of European powers (particularly Great Britain) controlling transportation and commerce around the world. You will learn about steamships and railroads, social class, and the mass media of the day. All this is most palatable as the background to the story of the race around the world. You might also come to realize like I did that this period of time, over 125 years ago, was both vastly different and eerily similar to our world today.

"Eighty Days" is women's history, it's social history, and it's just plain fun and interesting. I highly recommend it for your vacation reading list.

19th century history. World travel. Female journalists. I knew I couldn't go wrong with this brand-new non-fiction release that combines three of my favorite topics to read about. Eighty Days more than fulfilled my expectations - improbably weaving a fast-paced, in-depth and surprisingly moving story out of what could have been a dry recitation of train and steam ship schedules.

As a kid, I loved re-reading my Abridged Classics version of Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days. I was seven or eight years old and it was the first time I can recall reading about India and London and a dozen other exotic places. We've lost a lot of that wonder in today's world but in Bly and Bisland's time, Verne's book was an intriguing fantasy. No one had ever circled the world in that short of a time.

Goodman captures that sense of wonder amongst the general populace and shows how the race was conducted at a unique moment in human history, when advances in steams ships and cross-continental railroads made extensive travel possible and completely changed the way people perceived time and distance. In the age of 14-hour non-stop plane flights, it can be hard to wrap around how revolutionary it was for a person to circle the world in less than eighty days. Good man is quite good at showing the excitement and curiosity surrounding the race.

A large part of the success of the book is also due to Goodman's strengths as a writer. He's very good at richly describing the cities and seascapes the two journalists saw on their trip. I could see the fishing town by the bay that was Hong Kong in 1889 and French countryside not yet blighted by two world wars and the endlessness of the Pacific Ocean.

You can hardly make it through journalism school without learning about Nellie Bly - but until now, I had no idea that in the 19th century she was most known for her race around the world. I resisted every urge to look up the result of the race online before reaching the conclusion of the book and found myself rooting instead for Elizabeth Bisland, who seemed to appreciate the opportunity the race gave her to see the world as opposed to the frantic competitiveness of Nellie Bly.

Some reviews have faulted Goodman for his excessive detail and side-tracks into various aspects of 19th century history that relate to the trip. I don't see why this is a problem - I read historical narratives so that I can be carried away by an engaging story while deepening my knowledge of that moment in history. After reading Eighty Days, I know a bit more about Chinese immigrants, the competitive world of New York City newspapers, how coal powered steamships and the origin of the word rickshaw.

I was surprised by the moving epilogue and the way it placed the race in the larger context of Bly and Bisland's lives and the burgeoning celebrity culture in late 19th century America. I would strongly encourage fans of historical fiction to pick up this nonfiction narrative. The vivid personalities, the quality of the writing and the excitement of the race make for a story as exciting as any novel.

Goodman tells not just the story of these two women but also immerses the reader into the newly global world of the late 1890s, both the good and the bad.

Goodman starts the book by introducing us to the two women who will race around the world. He does an excellent job using primary source materials to give us both how others saw these women and how they saw themselves. While introducing the women, Goodman also talks at length about the role of women in journalism in the late 1800s and how hard it was for them to break into real reporting. Jumping off from Bisland and Bly, describes how women were blocked from many journalism positions with excuses such as that the newsroom needed to be free to swear and not worry about a lady’s sensibilities. Women were often barred to what was deemed the ladylike journalism of the society pages. The hardest part of being a hardhitting female journalist at the time wasn’t the actual reporting but instead the reception of women in the newsroom. Bisland and Bly and their race came at the beginning of having women journalists do some form of stunt journalism, which is how they started to break into hardhitting journalism. Editors and owners discovered that readers enjoyed reading about women in stunt situations, such as learning how to stunt ride a horse, so this was their way in. Thus, even if the reader dislikes the personalities of either or both of the racers, they come away with some level of respect for them both breaking into the business.

From here, Goodman starts following the women on their race around the world. He takes the different legs of their journeys as a jumping-off point to discuss something historically relevant to that portion of the journey. For instance, during Bly’s trip on the ocean liner to Europe, he discusses how the steamships worked, from the technical aspects of the steam to the class aspects of first class down to steerage. During Bisland’s railroad trip across the United States, he discusses the railroad barons and the building of the transcontinental railroad. Thus, the reader is getting both the story of the race and historical context. It’s a wonderful way to learn, as the historical explanations flesh out the settings around and expectations of the women, and the women lend a sense of realness to the historical situations and settings being described.

After the completion of the trip (and, no, I won’t tell you who won), Goodman explores the impact of the trip on the women’s lives and follows the rest of their lives to their deaths. This part may feel a bit long and irrelevant to some readers, however often when people become famous for doing something, no one talks about the long-lasting impact of that fame or what the rest of their lives are like. Seeing how both women reacted to the trip, their careers, and others puts them in a more complete light, giving the reader a complete picture of what the race did in their lives. This complete picture of both of their lives is something I really appreciated and that also demonstrated that one shouldn’t judge people too fast. They and their lives may turn out differently than you expect at first.

What would have made me love the book is if I had come away feeling like I could respect or look up to either woman. Unfortunately, by the time I heard the full story of both of their lives, I found them both to be so deeply flawed that I couldn’t do that. I respect them for breaking into the newspaper business, and perhaps if I was a journalist myself that would be enough to make me look up to them. But each had a fatal flaw that made this not be a book about two role models but instead a book about two women. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it does keep it from being a book I would return to over and over again.

Overall, Goodman does an excellent job using the true story of two female journalists’ race around the world in 1889 to 1890 to build a solid picture of the increasingly global world of that time. The reader will come away both with having learned an incredible true story and details about the 1800s they might not have known before, told in a delightfully compelling manner. Some readers might be a bit bothered by how flawed the two women journalists are or by the fact that the book goes on past the race to tell about the end of their lives in detail. However, these are minor things that do not distract too much from the literary qualities of this historical nonfiction. Recommended to those interested in an easy-to-read, engaging historical nonfiction book focusing in on women’s history. Particularly recommended to modern, women journalists.

On November 14, 1889, muckraking reporter Nellie Bly left New York City on the first leg of a round-the-world race to beat Phileas Fogg's time of eighty days. Fogg, you will remember, was a fictional character created by French author Jules Verne. Bly would not know until she reached Hong Kong that she was also in a race with a real person, another American writer named Elizabeth Bisland. Bly had three days to get ready, Elizabeth about twelve hours, Bly was traveling east, Bisland west. Bly's trip was funded by her employer, Joseph Pulitzer's The World newspaper, Bisland's by The Cosmopolitan magazine, for which she wrote freelance. The two women could not have been more unlike, as the trip was all eager Bly's idea and reluctant Bisland was fairly dropped in it by her editor. Both publications were in it to raise circulation.

This was a time when women were, quote, cherished, end quote out of anything that had anything to do with anything other than marriage and children. Just being reporters put Bly and Bisland beyond the pale

"I have never yet seen a girl enter the newspaper field but that I have noticed a steady decline in that innate sense of refinement, gentleness and womanliness with which she entered it," observed one male newspaper editor. "Young womanhood," rhapsodized another, "is too sweet and sacred a thing to couple with the life of careless manner, hasty talk, and unconventional action that seems inevitable in a newspaper office."

Sweet and sacred Bly, twenty-five, and Bisland, twenty-seven, wrote for a living. Bly was the sole support of her mother and later her sister-in-law and her children. Bisland supported herself and her sister. Bly was an investigative journalist before the job title existed who contrived to report from inside an insane asylum for women, while Bisland wrote book reviews and hosted literary salons in her New York City apartment. Both were feminists and activists, although neither would have described themselves as such, and both went around the world alone, although neither woman experienced any real hardship as each was sent first class at their publisher's expense.

One of the fascinations of this book is the detail over what each woman packed. Bly carried one small bag

a sturdy leather gripsack measuring at its bottom sixteen by seven inches. In that small space she managed to pack a lightweight silk bodice, three veils, a pair of slippers, a set of toiletries, an inkstand, pens, pencils, paper, pins, needles and thread, a dressing gown, a tennis blazer, a flask and drinking cup, several changes of underwear (flannel for cold weather, silk for hot), handkerchiefs, and a jar of cold cream to prevent her skin from chapping in the various climates she would encounter.

Measure that out on your desk. Rick Steves could take lessons. This was deliberate, as Bly

wanted to give the lie to the timeworn notion that a woman could not travel without taking along several pieces of luggage.

and a leading travel writer of the day recommended the female traveler, in addition to a small steamer trunk and a satchel, take another trunk fourteen feet square at its bottom. Bisland in a much shorter time packed a lot more than Bly, and she must have regretted it when the French customs inspector had her clothes strewn all over the deck.

In the end, Bly beat Bisland by more than four days, and returned home to a hero's welcome. People named daughters, race horses, spaniels and Buff Leghorn chickens after her, musicians wrote songs about her, and manufacturers used her name to sell everything from clothing to school supplies to chocolates. Alas, it didn't last.

In London, The World's Tracey Greaves paid a visit to the president of the Royal Geographical Society. "While I can't see that her trip will benefit the cause of science," observed the Right Honorable Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff [Really, he could have been named for the purpose.] , "...Miss Bly has proved herself a remarkable young woman, and I hope she will get a good husband."

That's right, little girl, you did your stunt, now go home and be quiet.

The World published her photograph and everyone knew what she looked like, so there was no going back to her job as an undercover muckraker, and she had no talent at fiction, the only writing job she could get. The revisionist history started in almost immediately, as Americans then as now can't wait to tear down the legend they have only just built up, and Bly didn't help things by embellishing the legend herself.

Still, I wonder, would as many women have undertaken to climb the Chilkoot Trail had it not been for Nellie Bly's showing the way a decade earlier? How much effect did Bly's circumnavigation of the globe have on the passing of the nineteenth amendment thirty years later? How many "sweet and sacred" little girls played the Nellie Bly Around the World board game and were encouraged to believe they, too, could go round the world, be a doctor? lawyer? Indian chief?

I do have some problems with this book, in particular Goodman's differing attitudes toward Bly and Bisland (He is in love with Bisland and loses no chance to denigrate Bly whenever he can) but highly recommended anyway, not only as a good story but as a you-are-there portrait of the time in which Bly and Bisland lived. How quickly we forget.

In 1889, New York World reporter Nellie Bly set off around the world, hoping to best Jules Verne's fictional Phileas Fogg (Around the World in 80 Days) and circumnavigate the globe in less than 80 days. Her journey became a national sensation when the paper invited readers to guess her exact moment of return, with the prize of an all-expenses-paid trip to Europe.

What made it all the more exciting was that a competing publication, The Cosmopolitan, sent out its own world traveler, Elizabeth Bisland, also a reporter but a high-born and privileged society girl, to beat Nellie Bly. Nellie was plucky and fearless; Elizabeth was well-spoken with a literary bent.

This book, like too many others, alternates chapters between the two travelers. I dislike being jerked back and forth between stories (see also Frozen in Time,Jungleland,The Hand That First Held Mine), so I did what I always do -- read one story through, skipping chapters, and then go back for the other story. The writer has done copious research and creates a full picture of the times, not just the journey, describing everything from typical menus on a ship to coal stoking to the opium trade in China. It can get a little daunting, so I did do some skimming.

Because the two women are doing essentially the same thing, Nellie going west and Elizabeth east, the accounts of their journeys became repetitive after a while. Elizabeth was more descriptive and contemplative, but even so, the two were so intent on the race that it destroyed their reporting instincts. Often, given the chance to experience the city or country in which their ship was docked, the women would decline. I would have expected reporters to be eager to have new and exotic experiences to write about.

For Nellie especially, the race altered -- or brought out -- her essential nature. She griped about and blamed other people when things didn't go her way. (The most shocking instance of this is when she blames "the coolies" -- workers who were doing a dangerous job, hauling coal onto the ship in swelling seas -- for keeping one of her ships from sailing on time.) After the race has ended, she blames a captain for a glitch in travel, making up an entirely untrue scenario, after he had gone out of his way to help her along.

In fact, what I'll take away from the book is not the excitement of the race, but the way fame and notoriety can destroy lives. Elizabeth went on to live a full and satisfying life, marrying, writing, traveling, becoming involved in relief work -- essentially being who she always had been. Nellie, on the other hand, never recovered from her brush with fame. Once a chronicler of the poor, Nellie seems to have lost her empathy on the trip, expressing only disdain for the poor she encountered, passing the time with the first-class passengers when she could have reported on those traveling in appalling conditions in steerage, or the stokers of the ship's coal furnaces, or the beggars on the streets of port cities. In the years that follow, she struggles with depression and bitterness, becomes entangled in lawsuits, alienates her family and writes nothing of worth. (Some of her turn of fortune, it has to be said, wasn't her fault -- she was publicly excoriated for turning to the lecture circuit, something that wouldn't count against her if she were a man.) Nellie's life is a lesson in getting what you think you want, and finding it wasn't what you wanted at all.

Goodman's biography of Nellie Bly provides a rich and colorfully detailed account of events that could only have been recorded in black and white. The need for extra details shows clearly enough in the published reports by the New York World, which sponsored Bly's trip. The newspaper ran undocumented reports about where she "might" be on her trip and who around the world "took great interest" in her trip.

Other unsubstantiated details can be detected only by those old enough to remember that 'anthracite' is coal from eastern Pennsylvania, not the western hills of that state. Mistakes like this cast shadows on the action-charged verbs like "plunge," "penetrating," and "insisted," and the adjectives like "crispness," "uproar," and "fidgeting," (chosen arbitrarily from page 204.) To this are added emotional colorization about what she "may not have liked" or "could not complain about," to pick but two examples on that same page. Comments about unvoiced thoughts, such as "the only sound was the lapping of waves against the hull, to her that was the most soothing and restful sound in the world, and listening to it she was able to set aside, if only temporarily, thought about rivals and ....allow herself a rare moment of lyrical reflection" on page 243, demand that a discerning reader ask "How could you know?" There are far more details than the footnotes support.

Only hours after Bly started, Elizabeth Bisland was hired by Cosmopolitan Magazine to start that same day on a trip around the world in the opposite direction. While Cosmopolitan wanted to describe the two trips as a "race," the World did nothing to encourage that view and Bly did not know she had competition until she was halfway around the world. Something more than half the material in the book was about Bisland, which probably reflects comparatively richer source material for quotes in Bisland's writings about her travels.

The epilogue shows the amount of this book's supplemental historical description, emotional colorization, and characterization by example. While the trip takes 253 pages from chapter 4 through chapter 16, the epilogue recounts the remaining 35 to 40 years of the two women's lives in only 22 pages. Interestingly, you'll note that in many of these reviews the reportage of historically accurate material comes across as boring in contrast to the details of the trip supplemented with lively colorization.

Eighty Days entertains us with historical fiction that amplifies the actual record of the lives of Nellie Bly and her rival traveler Elizabeth Bisland. In terms of historical significance, their trip qualifies as a footnote at best. The trip itself was a triumph of publicity stunts that sold an enormous number of newspapers, made a lot of profit for the publisher, and made Bly world famous as part of the deal. The book is fun to read, at least most of the way through, which reflects excellent craftsmanship in historical embellishment.

I basically enjoyed Matthew Goodman’s book about a race around the world between two American newspaper women in the winter of 1889-1890. “Nelly Bly” was the pen name of Elizabeth Jane Cochran of rural Pennsylvania. Elizabeth Bisland was from the South. Both had endured hardship in their youth and had managed against formidable odds to carve out careers for themselves as newspaper reporters in New York City. Their personalities were almost polar opposites. Bly was the more openly aggressive and daring. Ms. Bisland, feminine and full of Southern charm, achieved her ends more indirectly. Initially the book is quite lively and straightforward in its depiction of the two women and their race around the world. Alas, Goodman goes off on too many tangents too often and loses the narrative flow. Some of the tangents are useful and necessary, such as how the British took control of most of the great port cities of Asia. This information gives a good background and helps the reader understand the reactions of the two women to the places they visited. But there are other tangents that are completely gratuitous and unnecessary. For example, when Bly passes by the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor on her way to Europe, Goodman goes into a long history of the creation of the colossal statue. But it has no bearing whatsoever on the story. I learned a lot from reading the book, as I am basically ignorant of this period of history, but I think the book could have been vastly improved by some ruthless editing. The excision of about a hundred pages would have strengthened the book a great deal. I rather enjoyed the book on the whole, but there are too many tedious and extraneous sections. Three stars.

The story of not just one, but two historic trips around the world, "Eighty Days" is much more than a travelog. In following the two protagonists, Nelly Bly and Elizabeth Bisland, in their race around the earth, Matthew Goodman gives us a close-up view of the challenges facing women at the end of the nineteenth century.

Not just ANY two women either. Nelly Bly was a small town American girl, who fought her way into the position of journalist through hard work and determination. Her room in New York was on an unpaved road far from the newspaper offices in Manhattan. "Her grammar was rough, her punctuation erratic", but she persevered.

Elizabeth Bisland also lived in New York; although her apartment was only a few blocks away from Nelly's room in physical distance, it was miles away in social standing. In addition, she was "highly literary, with refined tastes", with a family background to match.

These two women, dissimilar in so many ways, had one thing in common: they had both managed to find their way into that bastion of masculinity, the newsroom. And by "find their way" we mean they persisted in the face of incredible resistance to the very presence of "the weaker sex" in their chosen profession.

"Eighty Days" is more than the story of two women cutting a path around the world - it is the story of two women from vastly different backgrounds who, each in their own individual way,
together cut a path for generations of women to come.

I could sit here and rave about Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World for a good, long while. But I'll try to keep it short and sweet.
I don't usually historical non-fiction, but after reading this book, I know I need to find more time for this genre. I enjoy history and I'm a big documentary watcher so this book intrigued me right off the bat.

What a gem this was! I had no idea who Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland were before this. These two amazing ladies decided to travel around the world in 1889.

Part publicity stunt and partly her own idea, Nellie Bly was to be sent on a trip around the globe. She was inspired by Jules Verne's novel, Around the World in 80 Days and she wanted to beat that record.

At this point Nellie Bly was a successful female journalist, writing for the New York World newspaper. She was known for her famous exposé pieces, the most famous of all being when she faked insanity and was actually admitted into an insane asylum for women. After Bly was released and reported the poor treatment the patients were receiving, a grand jury launched to launch an investigation into conditions at the asylum. Partly thanks to Bly, the conditions were changed and funds for the asylum were increased, helping that the patients be treated decently. I found that about Nellie Bly to be the most impressive thing of all. She spent ten days inside that insane asylum experiencing first hand the horrific treatment those patients were going through and she made sure she did something about it.

But I digress....Enter Elizabeth Bisland who was a successful journalist in her own right working as an editor for Cosmopolitan and known for her beauty and brains. Once her boss caught wind of the Bly's trip, he sent Bisland a few hours later.
Both women departed on November 14, 1889, Bly from Hoboken and Bisland from New York.

These two ladies ended up racing each other around the globe via railroad and steamboats for twenty-eight thousand miles. How awesome is that?! Funny enough, Bly was about halfway through her journey when she found out she had competition.

I love hearing stories about strong women who made an impact in history. This book wasn't just about the race around the world, it goes into in depth details about these women lives and backgrounds. We get to see how both these ladies grew up and came to be writers. The author goes into the account of Bly's visit with writer Jules Verne himself. Various details of the ladies trips are included, everything from train scheduling and stormy seas to the hotels they stood in and the people they met.

I felt like I was on an adventure myself as I read this wonderful book. The writing is great, it simply flows and I never found myself bored. I had to mention that because this book is 480 pages long, it is surely a lengthy read but I didn't mind that one bit. There's all types of historical tidbits about all different events and historical figures of the time in here. People like Joseph Pulitzer and the Vanderbilts are mentioned. I was very impressed by the research author Matthew Goodman obviously did. There's a few small photographs included within the pages. I wished the photos were larger, but maybe they are in the hard copy of the book, I read the e-book version.

The author writes a history book that reads like an adventure story. I also liked reading about the settings as the ladies traveled the globe. I could almost hear the steamboats and see the trains racing by. In the end, it didn't matter which lady won the race, it was just amazing that they did it.

Thank you to author Matthew Goodman for writing a captivating and informative book, one that I will be raving about for a long time. I've been to the Hoboken Pier before, and now that I know Nelly Bly set sail from there, it's a pretty cool thing.

I recommend Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World if you're a history buff of course, but also to those looking to read about two strong females who did something pretty amazing.

Simply fantastic. This book will make it to my top reads of 2013. I must purchase a hard copy for my shelves.

"There was a blast from a horn. at 9:40A.M., with a sudden shiver of movement, the Augusta Victoria pulled away from the Hoboken pier. Nellie Bly stood at the port rail with the other passengers and waved her cap to those she was leaving behind.; she could not help but wonder if she would ever see them again. Seventy-five days, which had seemed so short in the planning, now seemed an age. Smoke poured from the ship's three funnels in thick black columns, then turned an irresolute gray and dissipated into the sky. The timbers of the deck thrummed softly beneath her feet."
p.86, Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World

Disclaimer:
This review is my honest opinion. I received a free e-copy of this book for a possible review. I did not receive any type of compensation for reading and reviewing this book. While I receive free books from publishers and authors, such as this one, I am under no obligation to write a positive review

In 1873, Jules Verne's novel called "Around the World in 80 days" was published to much excitement and acclaim. In it he posited that it was possible to travel all the way around the world using the most modern technologies in a much faster manner than ever previously achieved. Only 16 years later two American women took on the challenge of doing the same thing but using commercially available means of transportation including steamships and railroads. As it happened, the two women were sponsored by two competing newspapers and this interesting episode became a race between the two women. This book chronicles this race in its main parts, and also provides biographies of the two women involved.

Of the two, the winner was Nellie Bly who had already established a reputation as a fearless reporter who would go to great lengths to get her story and endure all kinds of problems along the way. Nellie was born in Western Pennsylvania and got her start as a newspaper reporter in Pittsburgh. She was an ambitious and capable woman who was upending common wisdom in that Victorian era by doing things that were simply not done by women of any class. She was one of those who proposed the idea of going around the world and of trying to beat the novel's time after studying railroad and steamship timetables in her search for new investigative stories. Eventually she got permission to do so and she set off with her newspaper backers providing regular reports on her efforts and thereby bolstering their circulation. A competing newspaper decided to try and beat Bly and so they sent their own female reporter on the same trip, but running in reverse! While Bly was headed East, Elizabeth Bisland was sent to head in a Westerly direction.

Most of the book contains the highlights of their individual trips and it bounces back and forth between the two travelers. To us in the 21st Century who are capable of boarding a plane and being anywhere in the world over the course of a few hours, it surely seems strange that it took seven to eleven days to cross the Atlantic Ocean to England from New York! Passing through the Suez Canal was a day-long affair, and the trains from Northern France to Italy took three or four days in significant discomfort - even for First Class passengers! Of necessity, the book describes the more interesting events including the tours that the women took while waiting for connections in Yokohama, Canton, Singapore, and the like. There really is not much to say about the 56 days that Bly was ensconced in her cabin in various ships as they crossed oceans and seas, after all.

To me, the most interesting chapters were the ones that detailed the early lives of the two women and their lives after the race was concluded. Bly's story is sad. She severed her relationship with the newspaper that sponsored her and was unsuccessful in several other ventures until she dies of Pneumonia thirty years later. Bisland had the more successful life after the events of this book.

The focus of the book is on the travel though and this is where the book was somewhat difficult to read at times. For one, the two women end up visiting the same locales, so once it was described for one of them, there was no reason to describe it again when the other made it there some weeks later. Secondly, much of their time was spent on board ships. While the first description of seasickness for the travelers is pretty much obligatory, there is only so much one can write about the other one hundred days or so that the two women spent on ships. To help combat this, the author includes anecdotes from each of the trips and throws in some information on the various people who helped out, and that did make the book better in my opinion.

Ultimately this is really a travelogue that also features an explanation of what life was like in the later Nineteenth Century for American women and Americans travelling abroad. It was quite a different life style than we have today, but some of the lands that were visited back then are still that way today, which is quite ironic in a way. It was an enjoyable read, and therefore I decided to give it a four star rating.

Matthew Goodman's previous book, "The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York", was a fascinating look at newspapers, journalists and an astounding cast of characters in 1830's New York. Goodman returns to New York journalism a half century later to relate the almost too outlandish to be true tale of two women who, sent out by their respective publishers, attempt to beat in real life the fictional accomplishment of Jules Verne's protagonist Phileas Fogg.

The first thing that strikes the reader is the size of the book. This is no breezy summertime read. As in his previous book, Goodman fills his pages not only with the basic story, in this case the race between the two women, but with details large and small. For instance, it is not simply related that Nellie Bly, at the start of her journey, left New York on a German steamer. Goodman tells us how Bly took a ferry, costing three cents for a one-way ticket, to Hoboken, where the steamers of the Hamburg-American Packet Company are based. And not only is the reader told that she was introduced to the captain, but the reader also learns that Captain Albers "had a full beard and a genial manner that inspired confidence". And these examples barely do justice to the astounding amount of tidbits of information in the book.

Is this level of detail and nuance a good thing or a bad thing? Some readers will find it all too much of a burden to get through, but there shouldn't be too many of those folks. For the book is very readable, perhaps surprisingly so. The author moves back and forth between the two woman and their journeys, but in a clear way that makes it easy to avoid getting the reader confused. And he avoids distracting the reader with long passages on barely related subjects, although he does switch away from the race at times; at one point, for instance, he discusses Joseph Pulitzer for a few pages, but since Pulitzer was the publisher of Bly's paper, it wasn't too much of a stretch.

And really, this level of detail can be so intriguing for any self-respecting narrative history reader. In another example, after relating how Bly never went down to the fire room of a steamer, like many passengers did, to watch the stokers at work, Goodman then spends the next two and a half pages telling the readers all about the stokers, the conditions they worked in, and the resultant health problems they had. It sounds... well, boring, yet it's not, it's intriguing. Or it will be for many readers.

Be reassured! There aren't too many of those diversions. Overwhelmingly the author does keep his story focused on the women and the race. And it's a great story; the readers see the world of 1889-90 as they follow Nellie and Elizabeth through storm, sun and a rather bizarre encounter with a... well, that would be telling.

In summary "Eighty Days" should be of great interest to those readers who enjoy their narrative histories rich in detail, packed with characters and well leavened with amazing tales that in this case, just happen to be true.

On a recent discussion threat for a writer support group that I am a part of, one of the other women took the opportunity of marking Women's History Month by insisting in the most absolute and implacable terms that until American women had the national franchise extended to them in 1920, they were mere helpless chattels, powerless before the courts, economically completely dependent on their menfolk and invisible to society at large ... purest bull-hockey, I know, and I should have argued the point by referencing my copy of this book, which countered just about every claim she made about the condition of women in late 19th century America in telling of the epic round-the-world journeys of two female travelers over the winter of 1889. Both Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland were about the same age; both earned a good living in the media hustings of the time, one was a hard-working and hard-charging Northerner, the other a genteel and cultivated Southern lady.

In the publicity stunt of the decade, they were sent by their respective publications to circumnavigate the world and beat the record of 80 days set by Jules Verne's fictional hero, Phineas Fogg. Theoretically, it was at least possible, given the mind-numbingly rapid advances which had been made in the decades following the Civil War. Once it had been the laborious business of six months to cross the United States from the Mississippi River - now it could be done in a week by train. The crossing of the Atlantic by ship now took a week in some comfort on a speedy packet steamer, rather than the six to eight weeks of misery that it had been under sail. Telegrams carried the news instantly. The world had become small - and now Joseph Pulitzer's World newspaper proposed a demonstration by sending his intrepid star female reporter around the world. The magazine Cosmopolitan proposed to make it a real race - and their star reporter Elizabeth Bisland went west by train, even as Nellie Bly caught the steamer east.

The race was on; it made a star of Nellie Bly for a time ... and this is a copiously detailed account of their separate headlong journeys. I personally favor lots of detail in accounts of this kind, although other reviewers have felt bogged down and eventually bored. I did not; and as a record of what it was like to travel the world in 1889 this book is like a five-pound box of mixed artisanal chocolates. There are splendid curiosities, interesting people, events and descriptions everywhere, noted as Miss Bisland and Miss Bly went hurtling past at full speed. Most definitely this book, which I had in advanced edition, needs maps, lots of them and in detail. I hope that the final version does include them.

In 1889, two young women set out to accomplish an astounding and previously fictional feat - traveling around the world in under eighty days. Both women were reporters, sponsored by their respective news papers to race around the world in opposite directions. This book chronicles their incredible adventure, with rich descriptions of the people involved and the places visited. We also get a glimpse of daily life in 1889 and the evolving place of women in American society.

As with most narrative non-fiction, I liked that this book read like an adventure story but with an extra dash of excitement because the events described are real. The author did an admirable job taking advantage of this, spicing up the narrative with seamlessly integrated pictures and quotes. The descriptions were almost as good as the pictures for letting you see what the protagonists would have seen. There are certainly enough descriptions of the amazing places the two women visited to satisfy any fan of the travel memoir (although the specifics are, of course, about 100 years out of date!). The only complaint I might have with the writing is this: the digressions to talk about specific people often started before we knew how each person connects to the main narrative. This made the beginning of the digressions a little jarring.

I did, however, enjoy these digressions. I prefer narrative non-fiction to be approximately half about events and half about specific people involved, with a dash of social commentary on the side. This book was just the right mix of those elements. The book was made more interesting by the very different personalities of the two women and the different tourist activities they each made time for. These differences meant that even when the two women stopped in the same ports, their stories were never redundant. I found this a light, enjoyable read and would recommend it to fans of historical fiction and adventure stories, as well as readers who enjoy travel memoirs.

In the 1890s Jules Vernes' novel Around the World in Eight Days was popular. An ambitious young woman reporter for The World newspaper in New York suddenly thought she could possibly beat that record in real life, alone. She studied timetables and planned before approaching her boss and talking him into the journey. She would set out by ship from Hoboken, NJ and finish there in less than 80 days.

News of her race against time spread quickly. It inspired the editor of Cosmopolitan (which was a totally different publication pre-Helen Gurley Brown) to send one of his columnists in the opposite direction in hopes of beating the World reporter.

So Nelly Bly, reporter extraordinaire, and Elizabeth Bisland, beautiful, sophisticated literary type set out on their race. Nelly Bly was a pseudonym taken from a popular song of the day. She didn't know about Bisland's attempt until they practically crossed paths in the Far East.

This is a long book of nearly 400 pages but my interest in it never flagged. One ad I saw compared Goodman's handling of the story to Erik Larson and I agree. There are pictures of the people and places and modes of transport to help the reader feel part of the exciting trip. Complications abounded for both women as weather, miscommunications, and mechanical problems with ships and steamers conspired to slow them down.

One funny part of Nelly Bly's story is that she was suddenly approached by several young men, one at a time, who seemed eager to marry her. Rumor had it that she was an heiress who was traveling to mend a broken heart. Her sudden suitors were looking for someone wealthy to support them, and at least one didn't mind saying so. Finally she told one young man that it was all an act; actually she was quite poor and a friend had paid for her trip. That was the end of the suitors.

I won't ruin the story by telling you who won the race but even afterward the story of the two women and the rest of their life is fascinating. In retrospect, I suppose I could have predicted their fate, but then again maybe not.

Highly recommended reading
Source: the store Vine

This book is really two biographies in one focusing on two remarkable women: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland. Of course, the highlight of their lives is the main subject of the book in their simultaneous circumnavigations of the globe in record-setting time. It was originally Nellie Bly's idea to beat the fictional Phileas Fogg of Jules Verne fame in a trip around the world. When a competing periodical editor gets wind of her journey, he dispatches Elizabeth Bisland to race her in the opposite direction. As Nellie heads east and Elizabeth west, the country becomes captivated. The book also offers a glimpse into life during the late 1800's, from women's difficulty obtaining careers in journalism to the means of travel available at the time. There was also quite a bit of commentary on British imperialism, as so many of the ports they docked at flew the Union Jack.

I didn't think the journeys themselves were particularly captivating, as it was a lot of time spent on ships and racing to meet trains. There were some interesting locales, but the need to beat deadlines did not allow for much sightseeing. I did enjoy some of the historical factoids peppered throughout. Did you know it was the railroad magnates that established the uniform time zones we know today without even consulting the government? It is fun tidbits like these that makes me gravitate towards books like this. I thought the last few chapters and the epilogue especially intriguing. Nellie Bly becomes a household name and an unwitting celebrity endorser. Despite the similar journeys Nellie and Elizabeth embarked on, their lives diverge dramatically afterward, then late in their lives, the similarities of their golden years is uncanny. Most significantly, I appreciated that it emphasized that women could accomplish extraordinary things in a male-dominated world.

I. LOVED. THIS. BOOK.

What made the experience of reading this book even better was the fact that when I received it, I didn't anticipate enjoying it. Wasn't my subject matter of choice, cover looked boring, I don't know. But boy, was I wrong. Eighty Days is fascinating read that gives you a wonderful glimpse of the late 19th century. It touches on a variety of socio-political issues such as British colonialism and views on women, and it really helps you understand how very different the world was back then - no airplanes, only trains and steamships, no internet or television, just telegrams and newspapers. I enjoyed the writing style immensely. Even though this book isn't much of a thriller, at some points I could not stop turning the pages because I absolutely needed to know what happened next; Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland went through some pretty harrowing experiences (this book reads like fiction sometimes even though it's not!) I'm so glad that the experiences of these two extraordinary women are being showcased once again. I'm making all my friends read this book ASAP!

This book about a newspaper stunt that captivated America in 1889-1890 excels at giving a sense of people, time, and place, evoking the sights, sounds, technology, and culture of the era in vivid and fascinating detail. When the Suez Canal opened creating a water route from Europe to Asia at about the same time that the transcontinental railroad was completed in the U.S., people, including Jules Verne, began to speculate about how fast a trip around the world could be. Jules Verne's fictional hero managed it in 80 days, but reporter Nellie Bly and her editor thought she could do it faster, and sell a lot of newspapers in the attempt, so with almost no time to prepare she was off--heading east on a ship over the Atlantic. Later that day and with even less preparation Elizabeth Bisland working for an early incarnation of Cosmopolitan Magazine started off in the other direction.

The two women make interesting and appealing book subjects. They were very different--Nellie who did undercover reporting was scrappy while Elizabeth more interested in books and conversation was more cultured, but both came from impoverished backgrounds and had to work hard to be part of the mostly male world of journalism. The chapters alternate between the women as they venture around the world in opposite directions, often reacting very differently to what they encountered. I found myself hoping that somehow both women in this highly enjoyable book could win their globe spanning race.

People today, in particular women, in the Western World, don't really know how far women have come since the 1900s in regards to possessing the freedom to do or be anything they want. There's an old saying by Newton that if he "saw further than others, it's because he stood on the shoulders of giants." I paraphrase. But the same can be said about women today. All our achievements, our freedoms that we now enjoy, were fought for by generations of women who prevailed against the current norms of the day. Up until the 1980s, practically, women were expected to stay at home and tend to husband and children only. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) Women who had ambitions as scientists, inventors or explorers were gently discouraged and it took a strong character to prevail.

The story of Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland is a microcosm of the world of 1889. Part of it is how women were treated back then - women such as Bly and Bisland were feted publically because they were women attempting this complicated journey, but privately were thought of as "unwomanly." Then there's the manipulation by the media - in particular Bly's employer (which just goes to show that an impartial news media has actually never existed.)

The story and history are fascinating, and the adventures of the two woman are told in an engaging way by author Matthew Goodman.

Highly recommended for all history buffs.

The story of Eighty Days sounds like a great plot for a novel or a movie. Two women journalists- opposite in upbringing and nature set out in an around the world race in November of 1889 in effort to beat the round the world record set by the fictitious Phileas Bogg in the Jules Verne classic Around the World in Eighty days. This story is not fiction. Nellie Bly, born in the coal region of Western Pennsylvania, then the plucky -crusading reporter for Joseph Pulitzer's World newspaper - set out to do this and The Cosmopolitan- monthly magazine sent the gentile Southern born- book reviewer Elizabeth Bisland to try to beat her.
Matthew Goodman prides a detailed account of the race- and the world and the times the two were racing through. Always entertaining and quite informative. This is the best history book I have read since leaving college with my BA in History almost 50 years ago. ( Boy am I getting old !)
By the end of book you will know both Bly and Bisland and have an enormous affection and respect for both.
I highly recommend this book!
FYI- they made a comedy loosely ( very ) on this trip in the 60's called The Great Race- with Natalie Wood as Nellie Bly. Best known for its extraordinary pie fight it was a pleasant diversion- then & now. I would love to see someone do this book- the real story- Jennifer Lawrence for Bly , Keira Knightly for Bisland. But who would play the mysterious travel agent ? When you finish the book you will have some fun trying to cast this movie !

Matthew Goodman's Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-making Race Around the World is quite an adventure. Although I consider myself rather knowledgeable when it comes to history, I was not familiar with Nellie's opponent Elizabeth Bisland, and from the get go this book was nothing but a learning experience.

As far as my personal taste goes, Eighty Days leans a bit heavy into tedious, textbook material in many instances, instead of just being an entertaining read. It is rather dense and a bit daunting.

I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in Bly or Bisland themselves, the time period, woman's rights and travel. I can't say I will sit down and read it over and over but it is surely a well-written and informative read!

~ Allison Erland

Thanks to the publisher for sending me an Advanced Reader's Copy. I had heard of Nellie Bly but didn't know much about her. I had never heard of Elizabeth Bisland so this non-fiction narrative was very informational, educational and historical for me. There is a lot of detail which made it a slow-read. However, I found it interesting throughout. It was always easy to put down and pick up again.

Set in 1889, it was about the two journalists (Bly and Bisland) and their competitive race around the world, one heading east and the other heading west. They were trying to beat the record of Phileas Fogg, Jules Verne's protagonist in 'Around the World in 80 Days.' Travel in 1889 was difficult in many ways but these two determined women tried very hard to beat Fogg's record.

It is obvious that Mr. Goodman did a remarkable amount of research to complete this work. His writing is superb. I wish he had included maps which would have helped follow the route these two brave women took. At times, I could not mentally pcture where they were during their travels. Hopefully, the completed book will include maps.

This is a very exciting history book about two women, both trying to make it around the world in less than eighty days. It's quite a contrast, between genteel, southern Elizabeth Bisland, and Nellie Bly, from working class origins in coal country Pennsylvania, both setting out from New YOrk in opposite directions in the steam age.

The book highlights the social history of that age, along with the technology - the railroad and steamship that connected our world, the telegraph that sent messages across it, the British Empire - still in existence - that loomed over the world, where America was not yet a great power. Also in great visibility is the fact that these are two women travelling in a time before women could even vote. The very idea of women travelling alone was a shock, in those times.

With the excitement of this story and the exotic locales, it could have easily have been a novel, but it is told in a newsy style, with lots of references to first hand sources, so you always know you are reading history.

The primary focus of "EIGHTY DAYS" is on the "race" around the world over the winter of 1889-1890, with Nellie Bly, reporter for THE WORLD, heading east, and Elizabeth Bisland, reporter for COSMOPOLITAN, heading west.

However, author Matthew Goodman weaves an elaborate web that includes biographies the lives of both women (before, and after, the race), the state of newspaper reporting, the impact of rail travel and the telegraph, details of international travel and British imperialism, "modern-day" Manhattan, and so much more. When he casts his net this wide, you can expect some bits that are a bit hard to wade through, but it also allows for some fascinating details for the general reader (me). I can't speak for the history buff.

It was fascinating to read about the impact of the big rail tycoons on government and the creation of the four time zones we're familiar with today. Equally fascinating was the glimpse into Cantonese corporal punishment, the peek inside Jules Verne's private world, and the way companies used Nellie Bly's image and story to sell their products, totally without her permission. Things sure have changed on THAT front! It's also amazing how completely THE WORLD manipulated and promoted Bly's image during her trip, and captivated the American population so thoroughly that the final leg of her journey back to New York saw more people turn up at her train stops than had for presidential visits!

I already knew a bit about Nellie Bly, and had read her book about her undercover investigation of the poor treatment of patients at the mental institution Blackwell's Island. I had never heard of Elizabeth Bisland, however, and the contrast between the two woman's personalities and experiences was fascinating.

Here are the two things, however, that annoyed me the most. One is the lack of maps. This is an Advance Reader's Edition, of course, and is not complete. But with relentless references to geographical locations, and train and steamship routes, and locations which currently have different names, I hope that the official version of this book is replete with maps. Lots of maps! I was frustrated, many times, to not be able to look at the routes referred to in the book.

The second annoying thing is the relentless references to how beautiful Bisland was. Over and over again, you hear it said. I'm not sure why this bothered me so much, but on pg. 150 of my copy there's a photo of Bisland where she bears a striking resemblance to Joaquin Phoenix. I had to burst out laughing. Other pictures in the book are more flattering, however...

The "beautiful Bisland" thing really wasn't THAT annoying. But it is indicative of what is really the only overriding flaw for me. The subtitle of this book includes "History-Making Race Around The World", and when "race" is in the title of a book, the book probably shouldn't be this dense, this slow-paced.

But for anyone at all interested in this period of American (and world) history, it's well worth taking the time to be immersed in Goodman's examination of our country circa 1890, so very different than 2013, yet still so similar.

[Also interesting to note, in searching on "Nellie Bly" at the store, there is an interesting-looking band using that name. I ordered the cd... for $0.44. why not??]

Eighty Days... is a nonfiction book with all the twists and turns and suspense of a good adventure novel. Two journalists -- the legendary Nellie Bly and the lesser-known Elisabeth Bisland -- set out from New York in opposite directions to see who can circle the Earth the fastest. We get a blow-by-blow account of each woman's progress and setbacks along the way, and colorful descriptions of the countries they visit. Goodman also does a good job of putting the events into a larger historical and sociological context, touching on everything from women's changing role in society, to the impact of the telegraph and steam engine, to the cutthroat competition of the newspaper business. But mostly, it's a vivid portrait of two women, similar in many ways and strikingly different in others, who rose to an historic challenge. We see how circumstances led them to this unusual race, and how it impacted their lives after it was all over. You don't have to be a "history buff" (I'm not particularly one myself) to enjoy this account.

I enjoyed the book very much in the beginning, but found nearer the end I kept skipping over long, drawn out passages, such as the time Nelly spent coming from San Francisco. Details about the crowds at every stop became tedious, seemed more just space fillers. It was interesting to read how differently the two women felt about the trip and the sights, the people, one mostly ignoring all this and disliking most everything, the other delighting in all the new sights and people unfamiliar to her. Elizabeth's attitude was easier to admire than was Nelly's. How they handled themselves after the trip and for the rest of their lives was worthwhile reading. Interesting that Great Britain and the North Atlantic were the worst parts of the trip for them both.

This is the type of book/author that will hopefully find its way onto the Diane Rehm show on NPR. The author has taken extremely good care to show exactly what it was like for ambitious (Bly) and intellectual (Bisland) women to make their way in America during Victorian times. It's great to see female historical figures in the spotlight like this.

I was eager to pick this up because although my daughter was cast as Nellie Bly in the school play, neither of us had ever heard of Bisland. It turns out that just hours after investigative reporter Nellie Bly was sent East to beat the time of Jules Verne's fictional Phileas Fogg, a competing paper sent Bisland, their genteel literary critic, West to see if she could beat Bly's time.

The fact that we've only heard of Bly pretty much tells you who won, but the author still manages to create a sense of suspense, particularly during the times they are neck-and-neck. Here's a passage when Bisland is on a speeding train: "Everyone sitting down held tight to the armrests; those who had mistakenly imagined they might sleep clutched the sides of their berths to keep from falling out..." Throughout the book the writing is very well done, with vivid, engaging descriptions that make you feel as if you are there. I particularly enjoyed the scene in which Bly actually gets to meet with Verne and his wife and view the writer's "studio."

I took off a star because the author is clearly so passionate about this time period, he takes a lot of detours to give background data on people, places, events. For instance, the Bisland train scene quoted above is followed by more than four full pages on the history of the transcontinental railroad. Such detours take place throughout the book. If they were optional (say, as a website link), they'd be extremely valuable, but at times in the book I'd be so eager to return to the women's travels I would find myself skipping over them.

Remember, as a reader you will already be navigating the jumps back and forth between Bly and Bisland. Then there will be the long stretches of historical background. As I was reading, my daughter kept coming in and saying, "Where is Nellie Bly now?" and I had to keep replying, "Well, this is background material now" or "This is about Elizabeth Bisland now." I found that when I had to put the book down, the next time I returned to it I had to reacquaint myself with where the two women were, since neither's story is told straight through. It's almost tempting to suggest it would have been more enjoyable as a "flip" book; read one woman's story and then flip the book for the other's---meet in the middle. Of course, this book is much too scholarly for that.

The other hurdle is that apparently the women often travelled for days and days without recording much about what was going on, particularly since they didn't have access to telegrams, and sometimes because the weather was so terrifying they were confined to their cabins. I was disappointed to find that some parts of the trip aren't covered with much more detail than (paraphrased), she didn't seem to like it.

The bottom line is that I was delighted to see Bly in the spotlight, and you'll learn more about her here than anywhere else, even if you end up wishing for more about what specifically happened to her during these travels. It's fascinating to learn more about Bisland as well, and the period itself is covered in great (if at times too much) detail. Lots to love here.

Eighty Days, the story of Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's race around the world was OK. Some parts good, some parts choppy and hard to get through.

The subject matter, documenting two separate travels at the same time, is difficult to accomplish in itself. The way the timeline was presented was inconsistent. It was hard to follow the trip in a flowing manner.

The in depth research is outstanding. You get a great understanding of what the time period was like, and the struggles of single women who wanted to be self sufficient.

The story was so-so. The glimpse into life during the late 1890's was outstanding.

I enjoyed every delicious moment of reading Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World by Matthew Goodman.

Scrappy journalist Nellie Bly is a role model for all women who desire to make their way in a "man's profession," and who make a way for themselves when none is provided. Writer and autodidact Elisabeth Bisland loved English literature, and that love seemed to enable her to richly enjoy her surroundings as she traveled from British port to British port in her circumnavigation.

This nonfiction work of history reads like an adventure novel. It is thoroughly researched, and each direct quote is well documented in the copious note. The book is rich in detail and filled with background history. Goodman's research is astonishing. I hope he gets the Pulitzer Prize in History.
The book is saturated history. Some may tire of learning about the expansion of the railroad, or moan at the descriptions of the virginal West, but I find historical details to be delicious treats along the journey with Nellie and Elizabeth.

For me, it was delightful to consider the widening of America (and the world) with the coming of steam engines, trains, and the telegraph. Goodman presents rich insights about both the Irish and Chinese immigrant populations used to build the railway. His description of the Chinese death camp was gruesome, but drew back a curtain on an entirely new culture for Nellie Bly.

The Opium wars were explained clearly by Goodman. It's too bad that Nellie Bly did not take the time to inform her readers about this rich and tragic history. I was surprised that Nellie seemed to lose her reporter's ear and her drive while slogging around the world. Imagine how colorfully she could have written about the ship's crew, the uniqueness of the Chinese and the Japanese, and the loneliness of travel!
There are many memorable scenes in the book, but my favorite was Nellie's encounter with Jules Verne and his wife.
I've traveled internationally solo and loved it. Reading this book made me long for more travel. And isn't that what an excellent travel book is designed to do?

5 STARS

I have heard the name Nellie Bly before but did not know anything about her or her famous race around the world. Matthew Goodman did a good job making it feel alive. The back of the book is around 75 pages of acknowledgments,notes and sources of where he got his information from.

A few days ago I got a surprise in the mail copy of Matthew Goodman's book Eighty days and a copy of Jules Verne book Around the world in eighty days. Which I have heard of but have not read. I am not sure how come I recieved the books. I enter a lot of contests,get books from Librarything,goodreads and Netgalley. I later got a digital copy of Eight Days so I was reading from book to listening on my kindle to reading the book. Either way the story was interesting. I would love to be able to do that even today. Except I would be more like Elizabeth and take more than one dress. Okay I would take pants.

I think the book showed up both the good and some not so favorable sides of both Nellie and Elizabeth.

Nellie got the idea to beat Phileas Fogg from Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne. A year before her trip. The World Newspaper turned her down than. They decided with two days notice to send her.

The Cosmopolitan Magazine owner decided to make a race of it and send his own reporter in a race going the oppisite direction. Elizabeth Bisland did not want to go. Just given hours to leave. Nellie was almost done with racing against the clock when she found out that thier was another reporter she was in a race against. Which is not fair to her.
One thing that Nellie got to do was to meet Jules Verne in his home. The race against his fictional character Fogg made his book sell even more copies and the play about hs book was produced again 11 years after it was closed the last time. I know now that I plan to read Around the World in Eighty Days and other Jules Verne fiction.

I learned a lot about how different people lived back than and how they traveled. So many things I have picked up that I had no clue about. That England fought a war to make China to let in Opium that they wanted to ship in China to make up trade decifit that they want against Tea

02/26/2013 PUB. Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine 480 pages ISBN 9780345527264

Eighty Exceptional Days. Wow, did I enjoy this book. The author's research is thorough and his bibliography is lengthy and the information is delightful. The reader not only learns about Nellie Bly and her attempt to beat Jules Verne's Phileas Fogg from Around the World in Eighty Days, but has the pleasure of visiting the world of the 1890's, meeting Joseph Pulitzer, understanding the plight of Chinese workers in America, traveling in luxury trains and boats, seeing beautiful places before industrial pollution took place, and so much more.

Nellie Bly initiated the idea of traveling around the world in less time than 80 days to give women journalists a boost away from the traditional social columns they wrote. She had to convince the editor of The World a NY newspaper to allow her to embark on such a trip alone, a definite step away from social convention. The editor of the Cosmopolitan heard what the newspaper was doing, so to boost readership he sent Elizabeth Bisland, a free lance writer for the magazine, to challenge Bly's attempt, but traveling the opposite direction. The two women and their outlook on the trips are very different and both have many adventures, but the reader gets to experience both.

What an enjoyable book. Once I started reading, I had to stop and check that it actually was a nonfiction book. It was that riveting. For a second, I thought I accidentally grabbed a novel. Goodman does an incredible job of telling us about these two women. You feel like you know them and like them. He goes on enough tangents to give a clear picture of the world around them. They last long enough to give excellent context, but before you know it, he's back to the story of Elizabeth and Nellie. As much as a nonfiction book can be a page turner, this one is. I couldn't wait to get to the end and find out who won the race. Read this book, it's so worth it.

In 1890, two femail journalists took off on a race around the world. One was, Nellie Bly, racing to beat the fictional Philias Fogg's 80 day record, and the other, Elizabeth Bisland, was hired by a rival newspaper to beat Nellie. The winner would achieved world fame, or notoriety, while the runner-up, would be virtually forgotten. This book tells, not only the story of the race and the racers, but also paints a vivid picture of jounalism at the turn of the 20th century. If you are looking for a book for your book club, I recommend Eighty Days. It is a thoroughly engagiing book, and one that should generate a good bit of conversation.

I certainly learned a lot about the Victorian world. Perhaps too much. In a book about a race I was expecting pace to keep me involved. Instead Matthew Goodman decided to give me every bit of his exhaustive research into the two main characters as well as everything they encountered here and abroad.
I kept wanting to say, "Get on with the race, already."
Even after the race we are led to find out how these two ladies then lived their lives until they finally died. We learn an awful lot. I never have to read another book about Nellie Bly or Elizabeth Bisland or 1890 again. They did everything but meet Sherlock Holmes. Maybe I'd read that book.

This book is right down my alley. Victorian age travel and adventure. So why didn't I like it as much as I thought I would? Goodman is a good, not great, writer. He gives vivid descriptions of the places and manner of travel for both Bly and Bisland but at the same time the places they travel just seem to run together. The problem may have been that because both ladies were traveling so fast that they just didn't have time to stay in one place long enough to get to know it. I did love the descriptions on the ships and trains. I found the manner of travel immensely interesting. Now to my particular pet peeve with this book. Goodman, like many members of academia, engages in paternalistic colonialism and blatant anti-Americanism. For instance, in one paragraph, Goodman describes the pride that Americans felt in having one of their countrymen complete this journey and he seems astounding that Americans would be proud of this since the journey was done on British and German ships and railroads run by foreign powers. What stupidity. It's like telling Jamaicans they cannot take pride in Usain Bolt's running since he is running in shoes designed in American and made in China. This theme pops up a lot. The Americans are oafs and rude and non-curious while everyone else around the world are portrayed as "authentic" and intelligent. Of course, Goodman does not see the irony in the fact that his two protagonists are polite, intelligent and curious ladies who love the cultures they encounter (this despite Bly's bizarre anti-British attitude). The story is not bad but I would only hesitantly recommend it.

Is truth stranger than fiction? Sometimes, perhaps. But it's not often that truth is more dramatic than fiction. Matthew Goodman's EIGHTY DAYS describes a real-life version of Jules Verne's invented race around the world. History even seems to do the novel one better, as it's a race not only against time but against human competition: two journalists, Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland, strive to circle the globe first, Bly traveling east and Bisland west. But where Verne could contrive a series of unlikely disasters to make his race a thrilling one, Goodman must stick to the facts, which are resolutely undramatic, a reminder that traveling around the world is more a matter of tourism than of adventure. But Goodman fleshes out the tale of the trip with enough fascinating sidelines to make EIGHTY DAYS a compelling, crisply-written work of narrative non-fiction.

Bly and Bisland each wrote a book about the journey, and Goodman frequently relies on their accounts, paraphrasing "as a way of maintaining their distinctive voices and points of view." He's done a fine job of it; while all the description is clear and concise, the paraphrase of Bisland has a more poetic quality, a reflection of different literary styles but perhaps also of the fact that she, unlike Bly, enjoyed some of the places she visited. It's little surprise to learn from the epilogue that Bisland was a world traveler in later life, while Bly went abroad again only under rather more pressing circumstances. But neither woman demonstrated much interesting in the society and culture of these briefly-glimpsed countries. That's a forgivable flaw-- a race around the world doesn't lend itself to in-depth exploration-- but it means that their descriptions are superficial. We learn how things looked, how they smelled, what people wore, but never why. It all begins to blur together, as doubtless it did for Bly and Bisland themselves. Goodman might have compensated for this deficiency by supplementing their accounts, but by and large he has chosen not to.

He has, however, ably captured many other aspects of late 19th century life. The coming of the American railroad, the slow entry of women into journalism, the rise of skyscrapers in New York City, the introduction of opium into China, the foibles of Jules Verne, the opulence of the great passenger ships and the horrible suffering of the stokers who kept them going: Goodman describes bustle, ingenuity, and glamor without losing sight of the horrible human cost of glittering empire. (He's particularly good at finding quotes that highlight the sexism that pervaded even approving accounts of Bly and Bisland's endeavor.) At times one wishes for more such diversion from the humdrum business of switching trains and catching boats, which doesn't result in high drama even when something goes wrong; the closest we get to adventure is not with Bly or Bisland but with an American journalist sent to meet one of them, and even that unlikely (not to say foolhardy) effort is dispensed with quickly. Readers hoping for thrilling intrigue had better stick with Verne's novel, but those interested in a snapshot of a historical moment, and of two remarkable women whose lives were more intriguing and tragic than any race around the world, EIGHTY DAYS is not to be missed.