book review - Around the World in Eighty Days

This is a great book and comes from a writer with a solid canon of pacey adventure stories. But what you miss in the film and cartoon versions is the sheer scale of the effort of Jules Verne’s vision. He must have sat there with maps, guide books and numerous steamer and train timetables to be able not only to map the journey round the world but also factor in the numerous diversions that Phileas Fogg and company have to take.

Add to that the descriptions of the places they visit, which all sound as if Verne has had personal experience of them and you are left admiring not just the story but the ambition of it.

Plot summary
On paper the story sounds so simple with Phileas Fogg, a rich gentleman that lives by a very strict regime suddenly decides that following the suggestion in he paper that it is now possible to go around the world in 80 days he will do it. He makes the decision in front of four club members at The Reform Club in London and then almost immediately departs for the continent. He takes with him his newly appointed servant Passepartout and on his journey picks up an Indian princess and is dogged by Fix the detective who is convinced that Fogg is a bank robber on the run. By throwing money around and riding his luck Fogg manages to do it before failing at the final hurdle. But thanks to Passepartout going out to find a priest to help Fogg marry his princess they realise they have made the trip in 79 days and have time to make the bet. The conclusion is that it was worth going round the world not for the money, although that helps, but for love.

Is it well written?
The level of research is staggering and it is totally believable not only in terms of the locations but also the timing because Fogg shares it with the reader all the way through. It is one of those books that most people claim to have read because they can bluff the story based on knowing the ending from the various film versions. But you miss the pace, the sense of determination, coldness and detached behaviour of Fogg, who almost defines an Empire generation, which presumably Verne was trying to do. You are never bored reading it, never fully confident that you can predict the outcome and right until the end the central character remains an enigma to everyone around him including the reader,

Should it be read?
There is no excuse for not going out and picking this up for a couple of pounds or second hand. I might seem to be a bit school syllabus type stuff but it is a classic adventure story that has stood the test of time.Verne uses great locations and has the pace of the time as his aid but what makes this a memorable read is that you are unlikely to read a book with such an odd array of main characters than this one.

Summary
Around the world in 79 days to find love

Version read -Penguin popular classics

Lunchtime read: Around the World in Eighty Days

Everything seems lost but a mix up saves the day and Fogg finds that apart from the money it was well worth travelling round the world.

Highlights from chapters XXXV to XXXVII
Although the wager seems lost Fogg admits after she asks to marry him that he is in love with the woman he rescued back in India from the jungle and they send Passepartout out to get the priest to marry them on the day after, Monday. But the French servant runs back after discovering that they have got their days wrong and it is still Saturday and he has ten minutes to get to the Reform Club. He manages to get there in time and wins the bet and then heads back home. He marries and on reflection is glad that he went round the world to find the woman he loved – someone to melt his ice cool heart.

A review will come soon…

Lunchtime read: Around the World in Eighty Days

Things seem to have all gone wrong and in the end it is not because of a lack of trying but because of the obsession that Fix has with arresting Phileas Fogg. You hope that there has been some terrible mistake with the clocks and there is still time for him to win the wager but you sense that all is lost.

Highlights between chapters XXXI - XXXIV

After rescuing Passepartout the group take a sledge with sails and fly through the snow and ice to catch up with the main line and then take a train to Chicago. Then they switch to take a train to New York but when they arrive they have missed the steamer to Liverpool by three quarters of an hour. Fogg tries to get a boat but the captain on the only one that will go fast grudgingly accepts his passage to Bordeaux so Fogg takes over the boat and only releases the captain when they have run out of coal;. He buys the boat and burns the deck and pulls into port to catch a train to Liverpool.

Once on British soil Fix turn round and arrests him and puts him in a cell. The train to London leaves and Fogg is still in the cell. Fix bursts into tell him the real robber has been found and receives a punch in the face from Fogg for his efforts and then heads off but time has run out and he heads home rather than going to the Reform Club to collect his winnings.

Final chunk tomorrow…

Lunchtime read: Around the World in Eighty Days

Just as it seemed to be going so well for Phileas Fogg his servant jeopardizes the chance to make it back to London in time. You wonder if Fogg would have not been better leaving his servant Passepartout earlier when he had the chance. But still he might have his uses, and does save the trainload of passengers.

Highlights between chapters XXVI to XXX

On board the train to New York the only hiccup is that the man Fogg was determined to have duel with is also onboard so his company try to keep them apart but in the end fail. A duel is called for and the two parties go into a large carriage at the rear of the train and are left alone but shooting breaks out at the front and the train is being attacked by red Indians who hope to take over the train. There are casualties on both sides and the acrobatic Passepartout is the hero when he crawls along the chains to the front of the train and releases the engine from the carriages.

But when the train stops near a fort and the Indians are chased off it is clear three passengers including Passepartout have been taken prisoner. Fogg takes give soldiers and goes looking for him but as a result misses the train and is 20 hours behind and almost certain to miss the connection with the steamer to Liverpool.

More tomorrow…

Lunchtime read: Around the World in Eighty Days

With 52 of the 80 days gone and the worst of the journey apparently over it looks like Fogg will make it with a few hours to spare as he travels from San Francisco to New York by train, New York to Liverpool by boat and then onto London by train. But you sense it will not be as easy as that.

Chapters XXIII to XXV

Passepartout has left the steamer and is trying to get money to get out of Japan and onto America and in the meantime Fogg has arrived in Japan and set off to find his servant. They meet and join the steamer and head off to the US but Passepartout decides not to reveal what happened with the detective Fix.

Then he meets Fix on board the steamer and after hitting him several times the detective explains that although he now has an arrest warrant he can only get his hands on Fogg when he is back in London so he is going to work with them to make sure he gets there. So they land in San Francisco and get involved with a scuffle over electing a Justice of the Peace and Fogg fights with a man he vows to come back and settle accounts with.

More tomorrow…

Lunchtime read: Around the World in Eighty Days

Luck twists and turns not just for Phileas Fogg but also his servant as the half waypoint of the 80 day journey is reached and the truth about just why detective Fix is trying to detain Fogg becomes shared knowledge with Passepartout.

Highlights between chapters XIX to XXII

Having discovered that the steamer they were hoping to catch has been delayed everyone seems relaxed but as he goes to book the cabins Passepartout discovers that the boat is sailing that evening with the problem fixed slightly earlier than expected. But rather than let him tell his master Fix takes him to an opium den, tells him who he really is and not an agent of the wagers. He plies the servant with drink until he falls unconscious and sure enough Fogg misses the boat. But he charters another and pays the crew to get him in a position to catch up with the steamer.

Terrible storms ravage the boat but Fogg is totally focused on his goal and the boat draws near to port he sees the steamer leaving and calls on the captain to hail it with a distress call. Meanwhile things are filled in on the side of Passepartout and he is onboard the steamer after having been taken aboard after shouting out the name of the boat as he came round in the opium den. He realises that his master is not on board and starts to panic about what he will do when the boat reaches port.

More tomorrow...

Lunchtime read: Around the World in Eighty Days

Phileas Fogg is almost half way through his trip with 35 days elapsed and he is twenty four hours behind shedule but there is a chance that could be made up on the boat journey to America. He has picked up another member of his party and continues to be dogged by Fix the detective convinced that Fogg is a bank robber.

Highlights from chapters XII to XVIII
On the back of an elephant the party start to go through the jungle and are making good time and certainly look like reconnecting with the line in time to catch the steamer to Hong Kong. But in the jungle near the end of the journey they witness a religious procession with a young woman who is going to be killed as a sacrifice. Fogg displays rare emotion and suggests she is rescued and they pull it off with Passepartout the hero after he pretends to be a corpse also being burnt on the funeral pyre and jumps up and carries off the girl.

The celebrations though are short lived as they are taken straight into police custody before they can board the steamer. Fix, still without an arrest warrant from London thinks he can delay Fogg until it arrives as they are sentenced to a week in prison for the temple sacrilege Passepartout was responsible for in Bombay. But Fogg asks for bail and hands over £2,000 to get it and they get it and head on their way.

Fix again boards the boat and meets Passepartout but the servant thinks he has rumbled him as an agent for the Reform Club wagers and his hints leave the detective wondering what is going on. But Fix hopes to detain them in Hong Kong, where he has asked the arrest warrant to be sent. Even with a horrendous storm luck is on their side because the steamer out of Hong Kong is also delayed for 24 hours with boiler trouble. Without any sign of friendly relatives the woman rescued in the jungle is invited to stay with Fogg's party.

More tomorrow....

Lunchtime read: Around the World in Eighty Days

This book is one of those that falls into the ripping yarns category which means you get sucked into the tale and before you know it the minutes have passed and your lunch break is over. The short chapters are one of the reasons why it feels like the book is flying by but it is mainly because the plot is based around this race around the world and that pace infects the reader.

Highlights from chapters VI to XI
With a detective on his tail Fogg manages to land at Suez and set off for India. The detective pumps Passepartout for information and concludes that because of the mysterious journey and the amount of money Fogg is carrying he is the bank robber but he has to continue to dog his progress because no arrest warrant has arrived.

The detective gets a breakthrough when Passepartout goes into a temple with shoes on and breaks the law about respecting Indian religious customs and decides to use that as a way of arresting the party, which meanwhile is on a train to Bombay to catch a boat. They are going along without a care in the world when suddenly the track runs out and the two days Fogg has made up because the boat was quick look like being lost but they pay for an elephant to take them through the jungle to where the line starts again.

More tomorrow…

Lunchtime read: Around the World in Eighty Days

With my holiday looming it seemed like a good idea to choose a lunchtime read that is all about travel. It is also an excuse to pick up one of the £2 lime green Penguin Popular Classics. This range has largely passed me by but is a great idea because for slightly more than the cost of a newspaper you can get a classic book.

My knowledge of Around the World in 80 Days is based on cartoons and films so it should be interesting picking up the original book.

Highlights from the first V chapters
Phileas Fogg is a rich man who sticks to a rigid routine based around his home and the Reform Club. He dismisses his servant for bringing him his shaving water at two degrees out from what he expects and hires Frenchman Jean Passepartout. The new servant, who has a useful background in the circus world, is attracted to Fogg because he is looking for a quiet life but all of that will be changed when Fogg returns from the Reform Club earlier than normal and announces they are going round the world in 80 days.

The reason why is because there is a bank robbery and as Fogg discusses the prospects of how fare the criminal will have got in his escape with his friends in the Reform Club he mentions an article in the paper that says it is possible to go round the world in 80 days. They dismiss his suggestion so he bets £20,000 that he can do it and sets off home to pack and leave for the train to catch a boat to France. But no sooner is he on the continent than a warrant for his arrest is issued with Fogg being identified as the bank robber with the trip seen by the police as a ruse to throw them off his scent that kills off the business of betting money on Fogg’s success

More tomorrow…