Around the World in Eighty Days

Jules Verne's 1872 adventure follows Phileas Fogg's wager to circle the globe in eighty days, with his valet Passepartout.

Author

Jules Verne

First published

1872

Setting

Victorian era

Genre

Adventure novel

Read it if you like

Fast travel, a ticking clock and a very proper hero.

On screen and stage

Film (1956), TV series (2021)

Overview

After a bet at the Reform Club, the punctual Englishman Phileas Fogg leaves London with his French valet Passepartout to circle the globe in eighty days. Their route uses trains, steamships and an elephant, while the detective Fix, convinced that Fogg is a bank thief, follows them.

Themes

• Time and punctuality
• Travel and technology
• Courage and generosity

Background

Verne wrote the book in a period when the Suez Canal (1869) and the US transcontinental railroad (1869) had made fast world travel plausible. It was serialised in 1872 and published as a book in 1873.

Why it endures

Its race-against-the-clock plot is a model for adventure stories, and the premise is easy to grasp and adapt.