In Seven Stages: A Flying Trip Around the World by Elizabeth Bisland


Read by Holly Jenson

(3.4 stars; 7 reviews)

In November 1889, the New York World announced that it was sending its reporter Nellie Bly around the world, in a bid to beat Phileas Fogg's fictitious 80-day journey in Jules Verne's novel Around the World in Eighty Days. Catching wind of this publicity stunt, John Brisben Walker, who had just purchased the three-year-old and still-fledging Cosmopolitan, decided to dispatch Bisland on her own journey.] Six hours after being recruited, Bisland departed westward from New York. Meanwhile, Bly left on a steamer headed to Europe, both on the same day—November 14, 1889. The journeys were keenly followed by the public, though Bly, sponsored by the more sensationalistic and popular New York World (which mainly ignored Bisland), appeared to get more attention than Bisland and the genteel Cosmopolitan, which only published monthly. - Summary by Wikipedia (4 hr 9 min)

Chapters

First Stage 30:54 Read by Holly Jenson
Second Stage 31:56 Read by Holly Jenson
Third Stage 34:26 Read by Holly Jenson
Fourth Stage 32:02 Read by Holly Jenson
Fifth Stage 35:20 Read by Holly Jenson
Sixth Stage 30:57 Read by Holly Jenson
Seventh Stage 23:09 Read by Holly Jenson
Last Stage 30:52 Read by Holly Jenson

Reviews

nice account of a world circumnavigation


(4 stars)

5 stars for the narrative of the journey. Minus a star for all the irrelevant poetry tacked to the end. It was interesting to hear the narrative of a woman's experiences while circumnavigating the globe in the late 1800's. For the most part she had positive things to say about the peoples she met in her travels. A lot of these old books have racist comments, a reflection of the times but jarring for someone not tolerant of the old attitudes. This narrative was refreshingly missing most such attitudes. All in all I enjoyed hearing the world of the past described in such rich description. The author did a great job of painting vivid pictures of all that she witnessed. The last part of the recording was a bunch of poetry that I could find no connection to the topic of the book which is why I could not give this download 5 stars. It could have just as easily been added to a poetry book. Once I skipped through some of the poetry 'chapters' and found nothing related to the journey narrative I skipped to the end.

Ignore the poetry at the end


(5 stars)

I don't know why there are eight versions of a poem called Conversion at the end of this book. This is obviously some sort of cataloging error. Elizabeth Bisland's book ends with the chapter called The Last Stage. The poetry belongs somewhere else in this app. The reader is not responsible for this error, nor is Elizabeth Bisland.

rd retelling of around the world in 80 days i didn’t care 1 second about that u…


(0.5 stars)

rd retelling of around the world in 80 days i didn’t care 1 second about that unsympathetic character. only good thing, she praised ENGLAND