Jules Verne (February 8, 1828 – March 24, 1905), the pioneering French author of science fiction (“Sci-Fi”) writing, had created one of his greatest works in the form of “Around the World in eighty days.” . This is a novel in which a man goes around the world in just 80 days in a time when there were no planes. The main characters in this play are:
- Phileas Fogg – The “Hero”: A forty-year-old man who accepts a challenge from some people at the Reform Club and goes around the world in eighty days to win the challenge.
- Passepartout – Phileas Fogg’s servant who accompanies him to go around the world and overcome all the challenges he faces along the way.
- Ralph Thomas, Stuart – These people challenge and bet Mr. Fogg to go around the world
- Mr. Fix – A Scotland Yard detective, he is on a police mission and falsely believes that Phileas Fogg is his victim. He arrests Fog as soon as he returns to his home country.
- Finally, a young woman, and guess what happens to her? The answer, my friend, is in the wind!
On his journey, Fogg circumnavigates the globe from London to London, always moving East. He visits India when the Railway was being laid and incomplete between Bombay and Calcutta, and he also visits the United States (USA). Fogg had a British passport and so, at a time when the British regime was at its height, his task was made relatively easy. As the novel says, he “has employed all means of transportation: steamers, railways, carriages, yachts, merchant ships, sledges, elephants.” fight against time. And they finally got home a few minutes late as Fogg calculated. Purpose, fortune favors the bold. Just when Fogg thought he was broke and underfunded, Passepartout discovered some magic and worked the magic of coming back one day, so that Fogg could arrive early instead of late. This is the point where the novel becomes almost science fiction rather than mere adventure.
At the end of the story, what happens to the young woman?
Well, if you’ve seen the 2004 movie, you might know. But the book is irreplaceable in its own right.
You can read on for the rest and the adventures in between that include thieves, Scotland Yard, visa problems, bank spoils, nearly week-long train journeys, and seemingly royal cruise ships.