Around the World in Eighty Days (1872–1873) is a novel by Jules Verne. To win a wager made at his London club, the precise Englishman Phileas Fogg sets out to travel round the world in eighty days with his French servant Passepartout, pursued by a detective who thinks he is a bank robber.
The story
On 2 October 1872, Phileas Fogg bets twenty thousand pounds with fellow members of the Reform Club that he can go round the world in eighty days. He leaves the same evening with Passepartout, his new servant.
By steamer and train, by elephant across India, by sledge on the American prairie, they cross the world, rescuing on the way a young Indian widow, Aouda. Inspector Fix of Scotland Yard follows them, convinced that Fogg robbed the Bank of England.
Writing
Verne was inspired by the opening of the Suez Canal and of the American transcontinental railway in 1869, and by the completion of the railway across India, which made such a journey possible. Newspapers and travel agencies were already discussing the idea.
The novel appeared as a serial in the newspaper Le Temps from November to December 1872, and as a book in 1873. Readers followed it as if it were a real journey.
Success
It was one of Verne's greatest successes. The stage version written with Adolphe d'Ennery in 1874 ran for decades in Paris.
The story inspired real travellers, beginning with the American journalist Nellie Bly, who went round the world in seventy-two days in 1889–1890, and many films, notably that of 1956.
Anecdotes
The day gained
The surprise of the ending rests on a detail of geography: by travelling eastwards, Fogg has gained a day without knowing it when crossing the date line.
Nellie Bly meets Verne
During her race round the world in 1889, the reporter Nellie Bly made a detour to Amiens to meet Jules Verne, who wished her good luck. She finished the trip in seventy-two days.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Passepartout?
Phileas Fogg's French servant, a former acrobat and fireman, cheerful and devoted, whose name means 'master key'.
Does Phileas Fogg win his bet?
Yes, thanks to the day gained by travelling eastwards round the world, which he discovers only at the last moment.
Who translated the novel into English?
Among others George Makepeace Towle, whose translation appeared in Boston in 1873.