4.3. Around the World in Eighty Days

Around the World in Eighty Days

About the Author:

Jules Gabriel Verne (1828 to 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. Verne wrote widely popular series of adventure novels including Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873). Verne is generally considered a major literary author in France and most of Europe. Verne has been the second most- translated author in the world.

Major Characters:

1. Phileas Fogg

2.  Passepartout

3. Aouda

4. Detective Fix

Summary of the Novel

Around the World in Eighty Days begins at the Reform Club in England with Phileas Fogg, Thomas Flanagan, Samuel Fallentin, and John Sullivan sitting by a fireplace reading newspapers. We are introduced to Fogg, a very precise man who regularly goes to the Reform Club every evening.

At the Reform Club, Fogg, Flanagan, Fallentin, and Sullivan are talking about a recent bank robbery. This conversation leads to a wager. Fogg is quite sure he can travel around the world in eighty days, while Sullivan doesn’t believe it can be done. Sullivan, Flanagan, and Fallentin think Fogg is not considering the unexpected; all of the men accept the wager for twenty-thousand pounds.

This is the beginning of the entire plot and from then on we see how Fogg goes around the world and we witness the amazing adventures that he has with his companions. The main plot is based on Fogg’s travels, while other such plots merely support the central theme. Fix, the detective, follows Fogg all over. He believes that Fogg is the bank robber who has robbed a great sum from the bank of England. He puts obstacles in Fogg’s path just so that he can arrest him whenever he gets the warrant from England. The suspicion that Fogg might be a clever gentleman robber is the sub-theme of the book and the author makes the reader also suspicious. Passepartout too wonders whether his master might be a robber though in his heart he has ample trust in Fogg’s integrity.

The plot moves ahead with Fogg striving through various obstacles to reach London in time. He goes through Brindisi, Suez, Bombay (Now Mumbai), Calcutta (Now Kolkata), Hong Kong, Yokohama, San Francisco, New York and finally Liverpool. Fix arrests Fogg at Liverpool and this delays Fogg a bit. He thinks that he has missed the deadline and hasn’t reached London in time when in reality he reached a full day earlier. Thus Fogg wins the wager and in the course of his travels, finds himself a worthy charming, beautiful wife too.

Theme of the Novel

The novel is full of adventure and the excitement which the readers come across and enjoy from the beginning to the end. Phileas Fogg, the major character in the novel, accepts the challenge to go around the world in eighty days and in accomplishing this feat he goes through various lands and meets with diverse adventures. Thus the novel proceeds at a fast pace and there is always some excitement resulting from the various encounters. The beauty of the novel is that the writer takes the readers through a journey of many hair-raising incidents and exciting, adventurous, thrilling yet beautiful places around the world.

The most important feature of this adventure novel is ‘Time’. It illustrates repeatedly that time is fickle, and either works for or against them. In many cases, time foils their plans, when the delays build up and ships and trains leave without them that sometimes land the characters in trouble. In the end, Fogg wins the bet as he gained a day when crossing the International Date Line. The ultimate message is that no one can control time; time will work the way it wants to work, and humans are at its mercy.  

Before his journey around the world, Fogg lived a solitary life. He closed himself off to others and cared little about the way he was perceived by other people. By the end of the trip, though, he recognizes the importance of human connections, both in the form of love, with Aouda, and friendship and loyalty, with Passepartout. Above all, this new understanding and appreciation is the greatest thing he has gained from this trip.

        Though he has the opportunity to double his fortune, Fogg’s motivation to embark on such a crazy adventure has little to do with the money. Instead, he wants to preserve his honour and prove his worth to the men of the Reform Club, to show that he can do what he sets out to do. Fogg spends nearly all of his money along the way, showing that riches are not what he is truly out for. For Phileas Fogg, honour is more important than money.

Throughout the entire trip, Fogg and his group encounter various obstacles standing in their way. These challenges allow them to use their quick thinking to come up with innovative solutions to even the most complicated of problems, relaying the message that no problem is unsolvable. It is not only Fogg who shows his clever wit in coming up with solutions; Passepartout, too, shows his ingenuity in multiple situations.

(from Textbook)