Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne

Around the World in 80,000 Pages - Prologue: i

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne

Translated by George Makepeace Towle

You can read about my Around the World in 80,000 pages challenge here.

Before I start my challenge proper, I thought I would have a little preamble, and of course Around the World in Eighty Days is the OG of global excursions.

Jules Verne was a French writer of the late 19th century, well known for his novels Journey to the Center of the Earth, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas and Around the World in Eighty Days; the first two being cited as among the very first science fiction novels. In the French-speaking world Verne is generally held in high regard, with influence on surrealist literature. Simplistic and heavily abridged translations have led to his reputation being reduced in other parts of the globe, though this is slowly changing.

As a first point of note, I read an edition of the book which was released by an "independent publisher" and I wouldn't recommend it. It has obviously been scanned from an old edition and the text automatically generated, leaving a number of mistakes. Also the 55 original illustrations it declares on the cover are incredibly low resolution. If you're going to get the book, spend a few pence more and get a properly published edition.

Around the World in Eighty Days sees Phileas Fogg makes a wager with some of his fellows at the Reform Club, that with the completion of the railway across India, it is now possible to traverse the globe in eighty days. To prove his point, and win £20,000 he sets out on the journey with his newly employed valet Passepartout.

The novel itself was far more fast-paced than I was expecting, which is a double edged sword. On one hand it didn't get bogged down in ponderations, on the other there were few locations which felt portrayed with any depth. The character of Fogg is taciturn and unemotional to the extreme. While I can see why this was done (the expedition changed him, and by the end he was capable of love) it meant the tale was told from the point of view of a character happy to sit in his carriage and play whist as the train whizzed past the varied delights the world has to offer.

There is some of the orientalism and Eurocentric you would expect from an 1872 novel, but nothing that particularly grated. Verne being French didn't stop him giving an accurate portrayal of an English gentleman (with the sole exception that the Daily Telegraph was not supplied in the Reform Club). 

I wonder how much I have suffered here as an anglophone, and if a modern translation would have been closer to the French editon which made Verne famous.

For the accompanying music I have chosen the open Allegro section from Saint-Saens's Cello Concerto No 1. Not only is Saint-Saens a fellow Frenchman, but this piece was written in 1872, the same year as Around the World in Eighty Days. Its jaunty and spirited tone also fits rather well.

This is the first novel on which I have used my new 140 point scoring system, and it was awarded 71, equivalent to ★★★☆☆.