Inspired loosely by the route taken by Verne’s Phileas Fogg, yet more of an imaginary journey through the joy of reading….. it’s an armchair travelogue to counteract the pandemic’s restrictions on physical adventuring.
It’s such a unique take on ‘books about books’ genre (my personal catnip), exploring the world through literature old and new, connecting us as humans, through universal struggles and emotions, through fictional characters. A true book lovers book, and also this would make an amazing reading challenge!

Reading about books is not as enjoyable as reading books, ya feel me? It's even worse when you're reading an explanation of a book you haven't read. Often times the author would explain books by what other authors have said about them and thus it's hard to keep track of what I'm actually reading about or trying to gain from this.

That said, I decided to approach this more like a fun resource for finding books I would want to read. This book was split into different sections around the world and I actually found a couple of books that I haven't heard about that I would like to read.

If I learned anything from this book, it's that I don't like books like this - I would take that as a pretty valuable lesson.

While I was very interested in the premise of this book, I admit to feeling a bit lost through parts of it. I enjoyed reading the introduction and motivation behind the books and many of the chapters. Many of the authors and books I was unfamiliar with and I felt were a bit more scholarly than I am. Obviously this is highly researched and a project the author clearly poured his heart into.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BOOKS by David Damrosch sounded very intriguing to me. Damrosch, Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard University, explores titles that range from settings in London (Great Expectations and others), across more European cities (Paris, Krakow, Venice and Florence featuring Dante's The Divine Comedy and many more) through Cairo, Istanbul and Muscat (e.g., One Thousand and One Nights). From there, he explores the Congo and Nigeria with works like Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Achebe's Things Fall Apart. The next sections cover numerous titles from the Middle East, India, China, and Japan, before turning to the Western Hemisphere and South America, The Antilles, and New York. Each of the 80 books is presented in a three to five page description, often featuring personal connections and a summary/analysis of the text. Damrosch's "Literary Journey" was a bit too literary for me and hence my favorite chapter was centered on Bar Harbor, Maine with works like McCloskey's One Morning in Maine, Lofting's The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, and White's Stuart Little. Damrosch rightly points out, "we may never know when a book may prove to be a life-changing experience." AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BOOKS received a starred review from Publishers Weekly who said, "Travel fans and literature lovers alike will find something to savor."

An ambitious travel log using literature to discuss the complex and interweaving cultures and philosophies that have intermingled to create the distinct literary perspectives of different regions!

Oh love any book about books and this was different from the standard. My only criticism is that it’s easy to feel overwhelmed with the amount of information. This may not be a leisurely read unless you have significant background/understanding of literature.

This literary tour in 80 books, modeled after Verne’s Phileas Fogg’s route, proves to be exotically global and yet also personal.

Author Damrosch — Professor of Comparative Literature and director of Harvard’s Institute for World Literature, and author of dozens of books — draws from personal memories to draw a literary map with a vast array of books from all latitudes and excels at not focusing on the already much written-about novels. And while his selection of books at times is linked to personal experiences, let’s remind the reader that this is not a memoir and Damrosch’s choice to mention a relative who met so and so in such and such place is not arbitrary but that by doing so shows that all books and authors are linked to one another in different ways. For example: a renown author translates another; or one book proves to be successful in the other side of the globe wherein another soon-to-be known author emerges reading that same book; or that several authors met before they became famous, all the while Damrosch documents several of these moments through distant — and not so distant — relatives. While some famous works appear throughout — In Search of Lost Time, Mrs. Dalloway, Candide — Damrosch main achievement here is reintroducing to western readers some of the not always talked about books from remote regions —Czeslaw Milosz, Naguib Mahfouz, Georges Ngal, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. The books discussed are given its proper locale background as well as its author’s, a brief synopsis and a brief commentary by the author about why such books mattered in the past and why they continue to matter since they continue to influence new and coming authors in the contemporary world.

While author Damrosch shies away from calling his book a new canon, it sure can work as another attempt to the idea of a global canon that so few authors in the past have dared to venture into.~

I have to say I cannot judge this book unbiased as David Damrosch has a special place in my heart. I took the course “The Masterpieces of World Literature” by Damrosch and his colleague Martin Puchner and I was absolutely fascinated by it. When I saw this title by him, I instantly knew I had to get my hands on it and I gave it 5-stars before I even started reading it because I knew it would be magnificent.
Damrosch brings us 80 prominent novels from all over the world with an amazing literary frame inspired by Jules Verne. Just like Phileas Fogg from Around the World in 80 Days, our literary journey starts from London and continues eastward with fantastic examples of world literature. The list includes many well-known authors including Woolf, Dickens, Proust and Kafka as well as some authors especially from Africa and Southern America of whom I’ve never heard. I adore Damrosch’s narrative and style, he highlights some important elements of the literary works as well as a good summary and characters; and he creates enthusiasm and curiosity in readers to search and read for more. I added a significant amount of books to my never-ending reading list and I’ve learnt a great deal about different genres and cultures while reading this. Definitely recommended for bookworms!

Such a novel idea - pardon the pun. You're sitting at home, stuck in your house because of the pandemic - how do you escape? You READ!!! I love the concept Damrosch has come up with here, the pure escapism of traveling the world without leaving your comfy arm chair. There are a couple of spoilers in here if you havent read the books discussed but most of them are so widely known that this is a minor thing. A fantastic, bibliophilic read!

Developed from the idea of how to "introduce a broader readership to the expansive landscape of literature today, both in Europe and beyond." (xiii) David Damrosch, Department Chair of Comparative Literature at Harvard University, drew from his extensive personal experience and adapted Phileas Fog's route from Jules Verne's Around the World In 80 Days to create a world journey through literature in 80 books.

Written largely under COVID, Damrosch was also inspired by "Voyage Around My Room" by Xavier de Maistre and the realization the Verne never traveled outside of Europe. This lead to the focus on books "that have responded to times of crisis and deep memories of trauma." (xv). This does not mean they are all gloomy or depressive, but could be responses to crises.

As with any book that is title (Something in ___ books the list of items selected is subjective, but in the hands of a capable writer there is a convincing rationale. And Damrosch is a highly capable list assembler and writer. For each of these 80 works, he summarizes the plot, shares his personal reaction or connection to the work, links it to other works listed or mentioned, and speaks to the city or country and how that particular work resonates with its location.

Based on the framing device and the locations, some works will not be surprises (Venice/Florence includes The Decameron Cairo-Istanbul-Muscat has The Thousand and One Nights).
However, this work does encourage the reading of poetry, children's literature, mysteries, classics, graphic works, and works in translation. It does have a true global scope.

Damrosch also points to one of the inherent questions of exploring world languages, that of translation. Writing a journey around the world in English for a primarily English reading audience should rightly raise the question of the value and role of the translator. In his introduction Damrosch hopes that reading these works will encourage readers, for "translations offer a powerful impetus to learning new languages." (xvii).

I enjoined this journey around the world and learned of several books I would like to one day read. The main complaint I have, is Damrosch, in exploring and describing the works, details the full plot of most of the books featured, in effect spoiling some of the works. While for the well known classics this is not a detraction, for the ones I haven't read (yet?) I'm familiar enough with them to know their basic plots, but for many works I learned of through this book it will serve to delay my reading so as to hopefully forget their plot revelations.

Great fun – a journey round the world through 80 books. All book lovers like a list, even if only to quibble about what’s on it or what’s been left off. The books listed here are the author’s own personal selection and I was delighted to discover it. And so grows my TBR…..

Looking for some new books to read? Need a gift for the reader in your life? Around the World in 80 Books solves both issues!

With five suggested books in each of the world’s sixteen regions, there is something for everyone included here. Books as diverse as The Divine Comedy and Stuart Little rub shoulders with college literary class favorites Mrs. Dalloway and Ulysses. Within each individual book’s section is more than just a synopsis and a review. The author also gives some background to the author’s time period and even how other books have impacted the author’s writing style.

Since I love books, I have read many of the books listed in Around the World in 80 Books. However, I found the book chapters so cogent and informative, I might read a few again from a completely new perspective. 5 stars and a favorite!

Thanks to Penguin Press and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Press for providing me with a copy to review.

As someone who is extremely interested in comparative literature, I was fascinated with this collection from beginning to end. I like how organized it is and, though it is way too descriptive at times, I can get behind this book's intention and confidently say that it delivered what was promised. I also loved the writing. I will definitely go out and purchase a copy for my own collection.

In January 2020, David Damrosch was developing a plan. He was going to follow in the footsteps of Jules Verne’s legendary hero, Phileas Fogg, and travel around the world and in so doing, reflect on the books he associates with certain locations, and see how literature affects the real world, and vice versa. But when Covid-19 started burning across the world, the restrictions and lockdowns the pandemic brought about ensured that Damrosch wasn’t going to be traveling anywhere for a long time. Instead of sighing in despair and giving up on his round the world journey, though, Damrosch invited readers to follow him on a literary journey, and so for sixteen weeks from May through August 2020, he delved into five books a week, taking his readers to see places and meet people most of them had probably never encountered before– all through the pages of books. Around the World in 80 Books is the result of those literary travels, and invites even more readers to plot a course through the wonders of world literature.

There are probably few American literary luminaries as suited to showcasing the scale and scope of the world’s books as David Damrosch, a Harvard professor of comparative literature and the founder of the Institute for World Literature. He writes as authoritatively about Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway as he does about Wu Cheng’en’s Journey to the West, and if he’s wrong about Matsuo Bashō’s poetic influences, it seems that one would have to be as informed about seventeenth-century Japanese poetry as Bashō himself to prove Damrosch wrong. And while it would have been easy for Damrosch to look out from an ivory tower and condescend to walk among the masses to talk down to them about the glories of ancient poetry, it feels more like Damrosch is excited about the books he’s discussing and wants everyone else to be excited about them, too. As for genre, he’s not just bringing Very Serious Books About Very Serious Topics to the table. He throws genre fiction into the mix, speaking glowingly of Donna Leon’s Venetian Commissario Brunetti murder mystery series and Tibetan author Jamyang Norbu’s Sherlock Holmes pastiche novel The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes, as well as giving serious consideration to E.B. White’s children’s classic Stuart Little and finishing off his world tour with a beautiful discussion of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Everyone is welcome at the table of global literature, and every book is welcome, too.

When opening Around the World in 80 Books for the first time, there are two approaches a reader might take: first, one can devour the entire book in a handful of sittings and take in a smorgasbord of literary offerings all at once; or second, one can slowly sample sections one at a time, getting a taste of this or that and whetting the appetite for more choices down the road. The second one is a little less dizzying in its scope, though however they choose to approach it, the reader would do well to have a pen and paper or preferred book app to hand, as it’s nearly impossible not to find an appealing title that must be added to the endless To Be Read list at every stop along the way.

There is a flock of ” ‘fill in number here‘ Books to Read Before You Die” titles out there, but too few of them portray the breadth and depth of the global literary imagination as fully as Around the World in 80 Books. And though this list of eighty books will provide many readers with enough titles to last them a year or more, Damrosch provides even more suggestions in the final pages. His list, after all, is not the One List to Rule Them All. It’s a list of suggestions of great books that are great for different reasons. But its purpose is exactly what the title suggests it is: a round the world trip that takes place in the comfort of your own living room.

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Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group for providing me with a free ebook in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this ARC from NetGalley. No compensation was received other than the chance to read this book.

This work is a series of essays regarding literature from various places around the globe. If you were looking for something more in the vein of Nancy Pearl's Book Lust series, this isn't it. The series of essays and critiques does give a reader a sense of why the books, and where their stories are located, have such historical and literary importance. As a scholarly work (the author has been a literature professor), this is a well-written work. For a more casual reader, they may have more trouble getting into it.

Recommended for readers who enjoy a more scholarly tone on writing, and those who may be in the literary field themselves.

Thank you Net Galley for the free ARC.
I always love these collections of more books to read, because they make my reading list longer. I really liked the idea here of place and time. There were many books I had never heard of. Definitely well researched and not for the casual reader.

I'm always excited to find someone's "must read" lists of books. I have read some of the books reviewed in here, but have now discovered new ones to add to my ever growing list of books to read! David Damrosch adds lots of new insig'ht to the books I've read, and writes so well of others, I feel like I''ve missed out! I love reading literature from other countries and cultures. I certainly don't ever expect to travel or live in other parts of the world, so reading authors from those far-flung places is a great introduction to other pov. Robert McCloskey"s book need revisiting, as do the Arabian Nights. I had no idea there was more than one collection and am looking forward to finding a copy of the shorter one for reference.

David Damrosch (chair of Harvard University's department of comparative literature) has built a career on introducing (sometimes even translating) non-English texts into the Western canon. Planning a series of literary talks around the world for 2020, Damrosch thought he might visit a globe-encircling series of cities that mimicked Phileas Fogg’s imaginary eighty day journey and write a book about those experiences that could further “introduce a broader readership to the expansive landscape of literature today”; but then Covid hit and the world shut down and Damrosch’s project was iced. Until, that is, he decided to host his tour online — taking inspiration from Xavier de Maistre’s Voyage autour de ma chambre (a fanciful “Grand Tour” of the chambers of an aristocrat who found himself under house arrest in 1790) — with house-bound Damrosch exploring an exotic locale through five books per week, covering eighty diverse books over his sixteen week project. This book is the result of that project.

Starting with novels (and some poetry collections) set in London (mimicking Phileas Fogg’s launching point), Damrosch then voyages out to Paris (discussing Proust to Perec), Kraków (Primo Levi and Franz Kafka to Olga Tokarczuk), Venice, the Middle East, Africa, Israel and Palestine, Tehran, India, China, Japan, South and Central America, Caribbean Islands and an island off the coast of Maine (which was the childhood home of the author; surprisingly more literary than one might anticipate), New York City and back to London (with a special look at Tolkein). Much of the familiar Western canon is referenced throughout — books such as In Search of Lost Time, The Odyssey, and Candide have been reframed countless times by a diverse range of authors through time and space; every memory-inducing bite of rice cracker is a Proustian moment — and Damrosch masterfully uses the familiar to not only demonstrate how world literature has responded to the West, but also to underline how they have developed independent canons of their own. Around the World in 80 Books is quite long , and sometimes dense, but I found it consistently fascinating (and I will say that I imagine it would be infinitely more interesting to actually take a course in Comparative Literature from Damrosch) and it gave me much inspiration for further reading.

Written during the height of the pandemic and a time when travel wasn’t an option, Around the world in 80 books is an exploration, a travel guide to the world around us. Starting where Jules Verne’s Phileas Fogg began in Around the world in 80 days, you will journey through books old and new.

As someone who works within the travel industry, I know first hand how difficult the last few years have been for many. The toll that quarantine and isolation has taken on our social and mental health. That’s why I was so excited when I read about Around the World in 80 Books. Huge Thanks to Netgalley, Penguin Press, and David Damrosch for an advanced copy of it!!

I’m not much of a tv person. I know that I can easily travel all over the world through tv shows or on youtube, but books are my thing. I love the premise of being able to wander the globe through books. I know we already do this naturally when we read, but would you go travel a foreign country without a plan? That’s what makes this book so unique. It’s a map. A plan of travel. When I read that David had previously had a facebook group focused on this journey, I was quite sad to have missed out on it. I have definitely added some books to my TBR list (as if that wasn’t already long enough) thanks to this wonderful journey I’ve been on.

Sadly the delivery of the premise here wasn’t for me. While I can appreciate the intention behind the breakdown and expanse on why each book was chosen and how it goes into the next book, I felt that it was a bit long and drawn out and found myself skipping ahead in parts. I could definitely blame this on my ADHD but it happened far too many times for that to have been the cause. While I really did enjoy exploring the literature, the essay style just isn’t for me.

I would recommend this book to any literary fanatic who wants to take a journey outside of their comfort zone, with the warning that it may seem more like reading a textbook, but the books offered up inside, are well worth the read.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Penguin Group- The Penguin Press for an advanced copy of this literary travel study.

A book has the the ability to take us away from the our lives, be it humdrum or with way too much drama. Even constrained a novel can show us a life that we don't know, might be preferred, or a life that is alien to out understanding. Writing a book has that same ability especially during a quarantine that suddenly made a full life with travel and conference plans so much smaller. David Damrosch in his book Around the World in 80 Books: A Literary Journey has created a world tour for himself and readers taking us to familiar locales and to far-flung destinations using the works of great writers to make our journey possible.

Using the idea of the classic travel/adventure novel by Jules Verne, Mr. Damrosch follows the itinerary of the main character Professor Phileas Fogg, with a few exceptions traveling from London, to Europe, Africa, the Middle East and so on. Five writers from each area are chosen, reflected on, some more than others. Some regions have themes that the books cover, some writers are familiar with each other, some works are classics, some have been recent or even recently discovered.

Once you understand this isn't primer about literature in various countries, more of a travel book using books as your tourist destinations, the choices in authors make more sense. Some authors might be new, some very familiar, but approached in a different way that makes them apt for the section they appear.

Categorizing this book is difficult. The book really isn't a travel book, nor is it a literary companion. The authors chosen and the social and historical eras the books describe are interesting, but with some works there is just too much to read, and with with others too little. I think there might be a new genre or topic created for books like these. Quarantine books. Writing about the world while social distancing, reading and referenceing from your own library or Google. This was a fun book, full of facts and I quite enjoyed it. However it did make me long for the time I can put a book down and go to the supermarket with less fear and difficulty of going to some foreign climes.