"Thanks be for public domain & ingenuity of editor!"
Overall
Performance
Story
Even if you are uninterested in history or sociology, I'd be willing to bet money that you'll enjoy this!
The original writing was done by Nellie and Elizabeth in 1890. The editor has spliced them together into a coherent whole with dates being the defining factor.
Nellie is a working class young woman who finally gets to take the trip of a lifetime and tries to beat the time of Jules Verne's fictional traveler (See the old movie Around the World in 80 days if you don't want to read the original book) despite objections, delays, and budget by her sneaky newspaper editor. Elizabeth is a more affluent young lady who is coerced into the adventure by her manipulative magazine editor who has attempted to smooth the way and with a far less stringent budget in order to call it a race. Each starts out from New Jersey. Nellie begins her trip by heading to England (where she actually gets to meet Verne and his wife despite going sleepless for 2 nights to do it!). Elizabeth begins by heading west to San Francisco.
Each tells her story from her own perspective and unique personality. Each trip was fantastic at the time, and a rare look into the past of over 125 years ago.
No, you won't hear who had the shortest time from me, and the publisher's summary is sufficient.
The editor has done a marvelous job of intertwining the two narratives into an entertaining and informative whole! The choice of audio performers was absolutely inspired!
No info on who took which character, but both KC and MRF were obviously fully engaged with her character. The voice of Nellie was enthusiastic and bouncy most of the time (not when speaking about mal de mer), and fully represented the tone of the writing. The voice of Elizabeth was reflective of her class and vision of other cultures and classes without coming off as a snob.
Extravagant thanks to AudioBook Blast which presented me with the opportunity to be gifted with this marvelous production! ( )