Round the World in Eighty Days
1873
Round the World in Eighty Days
1873
Translated by Henry, 1840- Frith
A Victorian gentleman bets his entire fortune that he can circle the globe in eighty days. Phileas Fogg is a man of rigid schedules and impeccable precision, so predictable that the servants at his London club can set their watches by his daily walk. But when he wagers twenty thousand pounds on an impossible timetable, he unleashes something neither his companions nor his enemies anticipate: the unpredictable human heart. Joined by Passe-partout, a French valet with a talent for trouble and a name meaning "master of all keys," Fogg races across continents by train, steamship, and elephant. Each city brings new obstacles: a bank robbery suspect shadowing their journey, a princess in distress, the ever-ticking clock of their deadline. Verne constructs his adventure with the precision of his protagonist, yet infuses it with warmth, humor, and genuine wonder at a world shrinking under modernity's boot. The novel captures an era's boundless faith in what human ingenuity can accomplish, while quietly asking whether the best-laid plans matter more than the people we meet along the way.
