Around the World in Eighty Days

by Jules Verne

Mr. Phileas Fogg lived, in 1872, at No. 7, Saville Row, Burlington Gardens, the house in which Sheridan died in 1814.

an enigmatical personage, about whom little was known, except that he was a polished man of the world. People said that he resembled Byron—at least that his head was Byronic; but he was a bearded, tranquil Byron, who might live on a thousand years without growing old.

He belonged, in fact, to none of the numerous societies which swarm in the English capital, from the Harmonic to that of the Entomologists, founded mainly for the purpose of abolishing pernicious insects.

those who knew him best could not imagine how he had made his fortune, and Mr. Fogg was the last person to whom to apply for the information.

club decanters, of a lost mould, contained his sherry, his port, and his cinnamon-spiced claret; while his beverages were refreshingly cooled with ice, brought at great cost from the American lakes.

If to live in this style is to be eccentric, it must be confessed that there is something good in eccentricity.

hearing that Monsieur Phileas Fogg was the most exact and settled gentleman in the United Kingdom, I have come to monsieur in the hope of living with him a tranquil life, and forgetting even the name of Passepartout.”

“I’ve seen people at Madame Tussaud’s as lively as my new master!”

His countenance possessed in the highest degree what physiognomists call “repose in action,” a quality of those who act rather than talk.

Phileas Fogg was, indeed, exactitude personified, and this was betrayed even in the expression of his very hands and feet;

He was the most deliberate person in the world, yet always reached his destination at the exact moment.

while the ancient sculptors are said to have known eighteen methods of arranging Minerva’s tresses, Passepartout was familiar with but one of dressing his own: three strokes of a large-tooth comb completed his toilet.

the house in Saville Row, which must have been a very temple of disorder and unrest under the illustrious but dissipated Sheridan, was cosiness, comfort, and method idealised.

everything betrayed the most tranquil and peaceable habits.

What a domestic and regular gentleman! A real machine; well, I don’t mind serving a machine.”

the trees were already gilded with an autumn colouring;

handed him an uncut Times, which he proceeded to cut with a skill which betrayed familiarity with this delicate operation.

“Where could he go, then?” “Oh, I don’t know that. The world is big enough.” “It was once,” said Phileas Fogg, in a low tone.

But I would wager four thousand pounds that such a journey, made under these conditions, is impossible.” “Quite possible, on the contrary,” returned Mr. Fogg. “Well, make it, then!” “The journey round the world in eighty days?” “Yes.” “I should like nothing better.”

“The unforeseen does not exist,” quietly replied Phileas Fogg.

“As today is Wednesday, the 2nd of October, I shall be due in London in this very room of the Reform Club, on Saturday, the 21st of December, at a quarter before nine p.m.;

Passepartout nearly dropped the bag, as if the twenty thousand pounds were in gold, and weighed him down.

The boasted “tour of the world” was talked about, disputed, argued with as much warmth as if the subject were another Alabama claim.

At first some rash individuals, principally of the gentler sex, espoused his cause, which became still more popular when the Illustrated London News came out with his portrait, copied from a photograph in the Reform Club.

Everybody knows that England is the world of betting men, who are of a higher class than mere gamblers; to bet is in the English temperament.

This noble lord, who was fastened to his chair, would have given his fortune to be able to make the tour of the world, if it took ten years; and he bet five thousand pounds on Phileas Fogg.

Burglars are getting to be so contemptible nowadays! A fellow gets hung for a handful of shillings!”

“great robbers always resemble honest folks. Fellows who have rascally faces have only one course to take, and that is to remain honest; otherwise they would be arrested off-hand.

A robber doesn’t quite like to leave traces of his flight behind him;

Passports are only good for annoying honest folks, and aiding in the flight of rogues.

Fix observed, or rather devoured, the stranger with his eyes from a corner of the room.

never once thinking of inspecting the town, being one of those Englishmen who are wont to see foreign countries through the eyes of their domestics.

I lose two shillings every four and twenty hours, exactly sixpence more than I earn;

He made his four hearty meals every day, regardless of the most persistent rolling and pitching on the part of the steamer;

thought that, with its circular walls and dismantled fort, it looked like an immense coffee-cup and saucer.

the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, which means in Arabic The Bridge of Tears,

the mixed population of Somalis, Banyans, Parsees, Jews, Arabs, and Europeans who comprise the twenty-five thousand inhabitants of Aden. He gazed with wonder upon the fortifications which make this place the Gibraltar of the Indian Ocean,

“I see that it is by no means useless to travel, if a man wants to see something new.

This railway does not run in a direct line across India. The distance between Bombay and Calcutta, as the bird flies, is only from one thousand to eleven hundred miles; but the deflections of the road increase this distance by more than a third.

The passengers of the Mongolia went ashore at half-past four p.m.; at exactly eight the train would start for Calcutta.

remember this: cats were formerly considered, in India, as sacred animals. That was a good time.” “For the cats, my lord?” “Perhaps for the travellers as well!”

It happened to be the day of a Parsee festival. These descendants of the sect of Zoroaster—the most thrifty, civilised, intelligent, and austere of the East Indians, among whom are counted the richest native merchants of Bombay—were celebrating a sort of religious carnival, with processions and shows, in the midst of which Indian dancing-girls, clothed in rose-coloured gauze, looped up with gold and silver, danced airily, but with perfect modesty, to the sound of viols and the clanging of tambourines.

It may be said here that the wise policy of the British Government severely punishes a disregard of the practices of the native religions.

The brigadier-general was free to mentally confess that, of all the eccentric persons he had ever met, none was comparable to this product of the exact sciences.

The locomotive, guided by an English engineer and fed with English coal, threw out its smoke upon cotton, coffee, nutmeg, clove, and pepper plantations, while the steam curled in spirals around groups of palm-trees, in the midst of which were seen picturesque bungalows, viharis (sort of abandoned monasteries), and marvellous temples enriched by the exhaustless ornamentation of Indian architecture.

beyond Milligaum, the fatal country so often stained with blood by the sectaries of the goddess Kali.

Feringhea, the Thuggee chief, king of the stranglers, held his sway. These ruffians, united by a secret bond, strangled victims of every age in honour of the goddess Death, without ever shedding blood; there was a period when this part of the country could scarcely be travelled over without corpses being found in every direction.

now that they were plainly whirling across India at full speed, a sudden change had come over the spirit of his dreams. His old vagabond nature returned to him; the fantastic ideas of his youth once more took possession of him.

he was much more restless, counting and recounting the days passed over, uttering maledictions when the train stopped, and accusing it of sluggishness, and mentally blaming Mr. Fogg for not having bribed the engineer.

Passepartout obstinately refused to alter his watch, which he kept at London time. It was an innocent delusion which could harm no one.