Around the world in 80 days

Around the World in Eighty Days is an adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, published in 1873 and took place in the same year. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his French servant Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a 20,000 pound wager set by his friends at the Reform Club, a place where Phileas Fogg visits to converse with his friends. This novel is one of Verne's most renown books.

The story starts in London on Tuesday, October 1, 1872. Phileas Fogg is a rich British man who lives alone in a large and extravagant house. Fogg lives a very simple life that is charcterized by extreme organization. Very little can be said about his social life other than that he is a member of the Reform Club. He dismissed his former butler, James Forster, for bringing him shaving water at 84 F instead of 86 F. Fogg then hires a man named of Jean Passepartout as a replacement.

At the Reform Club, Fogg gets involved in an argument over an article in The Daily Telegraph stating that the opening of a new railway section in India, makes it possible to travel around the world in 80 days. He accepts a wager for 20,000 pounds from some of his club members, which he will receive if he makes it around the world in 80 days. Accompanied by Passepartout, he leaves London by train at 8:45 P.M. on Wednesday, October 2, 1872, and needs to be back at the Reform Club at the same time 80 days later, Saturday, December 21, 1872 to win the bet.

Fogg and Passepartout reach Suez in time. While leaving Egypt, they are followed by a detective named Fix, who has been hired by a London detective agency to find a suspected bank robber. Fogg matches the description of the robber so Fix mistakes Fogg for the criminal. Since he cannot secure a warrant in time, Fix boards the Mogolia with Fogg. Fix becomes firends with Passepartout without revealing that he is a detective searching for Fogg. Fogg promises the ship captain a large reward if he gets them to Bombay early. As a result, they arrive in India two days ahead of what was scheduled.

After reaching India they take a train from Bombay to Calcutta. Fogg learns that the Daily Telegraph article was wrong and the railroad ends at Kholby. Fogg buys an elephant and hires a guide. Fogg and his companion come across a ritual in which an Indian woman, Aouda, is going to be sacrificed by Brahmins. Since Aouda is drugged with opium and hemp the men decide to rescue her. Passepartout takes the place of Aouda's dead husband on the funeral pyre where she is going to be burned. During the ceremony he rises from the pyre, scaring off the priests allowing them to take Aouda.

At Calcutta, they board the Rangoon going to Hong Kong. Fix arrests Fogg but he pays bail. He boards the steamer with Fogg again. In Hong Kong, it turns out that Aouda's distant relative no longer lives in China so Fogg decides to continue his jouney with her. Passepartout becomes convinced that Fix is a spy from the Reform Club. Fix tells Passepartout his real purpose, but Passepartout does not believe a word and remains convinced that his master is not a bank robber. To prevent Passepartout from informing his master about the Carnatic leaving early, Fix gets Passepartout unconcious in an opium den. Paaseparout is still able to board the steamer, however he is not able to inform his master.

Fogg discovers that he missed the steamer so he finds a boat called the Tankadere, that takes him and Aouda to Shanghai, where they catch a steamer to Yokohama. In Yokohama, they search for Passepartout, believing that he went there on the Carnatic. They find him in a circus where he is trying to make money in order to fly back to London. Together, they then board a boat called the General Grant that agrees to take them across the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco. Fix promises Passepartout that now, having left British soil, he will support him in getting back to Britain to minimize the amount money that Fogg could spend that he, in Fix's eyes, supposedly stole.

In San Francisco they board a transcontinental train to New York, in whcih they encounter many problems such as a herd of bison, a failing bridge, and the train being attacked by Sioux warriors. Passepartout is kidnapped by the Indians, but Fogg rescues him after American soldiers volunteer to help. They continue by a wind powered sledge to Omaha, where they board a train to New York. In New York, having missed their ship, the China, Fogg starts looking for an alternative to cross the Atlantic Ocean. He finds a steamboat, the Henrietta, that will go to Bordeaux, France. The captain of the boat refuses to take them to Liverpool. He then bribes the crew to mutiny to the boat's destination to Liverpool against the captain's wishes. Against hurricane winds and going on full power, the boat runs out of fuel after a few days. Fogg buys the boat from the captain and has the crew burn all the wooden parts to keep up the steam.