By Matthew Goodman
On November 14, 1889, Nellie Bly, the crusading younger lady reporter for Joseph Pulitzer’s World newspaper, left manhattan urban by way of steamship on a quest to wreck the checklist for the quickest journey worldwide. additionally departing from long island that day—and heading within the wrong way by way of train—was a tender journalist from The Cosmopolitan journal, Elizabeth Bisland. every one girl was firm to outdo Jules Verne’s fictional hero Phileas Fogg and circle the globe in below 80 days. The dramatic race that ensued could span twenty-eight thousand miles, captivate the state, and alter either competitors’ lives forever.
the 2 girls have been a learn in contrasts. Nellie Bly used to be a scrappy, hard-driving, formidable reporter from Pennsylvania coal kingdom who sought out the main sensational information tales, usually going undercover to show social injustice. Genteel and chic, Elizabeth Bisland have been born into an aristocratic Southern kin, most well-liked novels and poetry to newspapers, and was once broadly often called the main appealing girl in metropolitan journalism. either ladies, even though, have been proficient writers who had carved out winning careers within the hypercompetitive, male-dominated global of big-city newspapers. Eighty Days brings those trailblazing girls to existence as they race opposed to time and every different, unaided and by myself, ever acutely aware that the slightest hold up may suggest the adaptation among victory and defeat.
A brilliant real-life new edition of the race and its aftermath, from its frenzied begin to the nail-biting sprint at its end, Eighty Days is background with the guts of an outstanding event novel. Here’s the adventure that takes us in the back of the partitions of Jules Verne’s Amiens property, into the again alleys of Hong Kong, onto the grounds of a Ceylon tea plantation, via storm-tossed ocean crossings and mountains blocked via snowdrifts twenty ft deep, and to many extra unforeseen and unique locales from London to Yokohama. alongside the best way, we're taken care of to attention-grabbing glimpses of daily life within the past due 19th century—an period of unparalleled technological advances, newly remade within the snapshot of the steamship, the railroad, and the telegraph. For Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland—two ladies prior to their time in each feel of the word—were not just racing world wide. They have been additionally racing throughout the very center of the Victorian age.
Advance compliment for Eighty Days
“What a narrative! What a rare old adventure!”—Amanda Foreman, writer of A international on Fire
“Vividly imagined and gorgeously particular, Eighty Days recounts the exhilarating trip of 2 pioneering ladies, Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland, as they race world wide. Matthew Goodman has crafted a enjoyable, quick, page-turning action-adventure that might make you need you may hold their bags.”—Karen Abbott, writer of American Rose
“What a pride to circumnavigate the globe with pioneering reporters Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland. the 2 ladies carve out an adventurous course in a limited Victorian international that cares as a lot about their marriage customers and the variety of trunks they pack as approximately their trailblazing profession aspirations. Matthew Goodman’s full of life writing and distinctive learn carry the tale of those outstanding girls to existence as they race all over the world, complete steam forward, giving us an intimate examine a late-nineteenth-century international that's all of sudden shrinking within the face of fast technological switch. just one of those amazing ladies can win the race worldwide, however the reader of this interesting story may be convinced of a reward.”—Elizabeth Letts, writer of The Eighty-Dollar Champion
