Author: Jules Verne
Publisher: Listening Library
Rating: WORTHY!
Translated from the French by Michael Glencross. You can both listen to and read this novel here.
Normally I'd do a movie-book review, because there is more than one movie/TV show/documentary based on this novel. The problem is that, unlike with novels, I only review movies that I really like. I detested the 1956 movie starring David Niven, Cantinflas, Robert Newton, and Shirley MacLaine. It was bigoted, condescending, and abysmally extravagant, and with the exception of maybe half-a-dozen scenes, this bloated three-hour extravaganza featuring cameos by an utterly absurd number of actors was a shameful disaster which bore no resemblance to the original novel.
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne, was originally published as Le Tour du Monde en Quatre-vingts Jours, in 1873. This CD to which I listened was read remarkably well by Jim Dale, the same guy who narrates the Harry Potter extra material on the DVDs and also the Potter audio books. His range of characterizations was good, and his rendition of Passepartout was hilarious.
Phileas Fogg and Jean Passepartout (from the French Passé partout, meaning 'master key' - or get out of jail free, if you like!) travel the world in 80 days on a wager which Fogg has with four colleagues at the London Reform Club - a bet which would be valued at well over a million pounds today. Fogg is wealthy yet doesn't flaunt it, and he lives his life with a precision and an efficiency which borders on his having an OCD. This bet pretty much constitutes Fogg's entire fortune, and he stands to lose everything should he fail.
He plans to take steamships and railroad rides, spending a week to get to Egypt, and travel the Suez canal. He will then take almost two weeks by ship to get to Mumbai (then called Bombay) in India and he will cross India in 3 days, leaving Kolkotta on a steamship bound for Hong Kong, China. From there he will take just under a week to reach Yokohama, Japan, and then almost three weeks sailing to San Francisco USA. A further week will see him across that continent by rail, and finally nine days to get to Liverpool on England's North-West coast; then down to London.
Of course, it's nowhere near as easy as that. His entire success depends upon him making connections, one after another, between a steamship arrival and a train departure or vice-versa. He runs into one problem after another, not least of which is his pursuit by a detective named Fix, who has pinned him as the thief in a fifty-thousand pound bank robbery from the Bank of England. In India, Fogg discovers that the railroad, which he had counted on to get him across that sub-continent has, contrary to newspaper reports, not yet been completed, and that would seriously seem to, er, derail his chances, but the imperturbable Fogg merely buys an elephant and continues on his way. Him see, Hindu....
It's in India that a completely unforeseen situation arises as Fogg and Passepartout discover that there's a woman who is purportedly a Sati - a young woman named Aouda who plans on immolating herself on her husband's funeral pyre. Except that unlike some Indian women (including some recent ones), this one is not partaking voluntarily. Passepartout engineers a daring rescue, and in order to prevent her falling into these evil religious men's hands again, Fogg agrees to accompany her to Hong Kong, where she can stay with a relative. The relative, of course, no longer lives in HK, but has moved to Europe, so Aouda continues with them to the USA and thence to England.
Barely on schedule, Fogg, after a horrific trip through the US, finds he has missed the boat - literally. For a small fortune, Fogg buys passage on a ship to Bordeaux. The captain cannot be persuaded to re-route to Liverpool (why Fogg is so obsessed with Liverpool is a mystery - Southampton would be faster, although the soccer team there isn't quite as prestigious...!). Yes, Liverpool is fifty miles closer to Cobh (then, Queenstown, in Éire) than S'hampton is, but S'hampton to London is only 60 miles, whereas Liverpool to London thrice that. Anyway, Fogg bribes the crew to mutiny, but discovers that going at full tilt, they've used up too much coal and cannot complete the journey, not even to Liverpool. Fogg buys the ship from the captain at more than it's worth and promptly begins tearing up the wooden superstructure to burn in the ship's boiler!
Fogg arrives in England in plenty of time to win, but now they're back on English soil, Fix realizes that he has both Fogg and warrant in the same place at the same time, and arrests him! Once it's been discovered that the actual thief was already apprehended, Fogg is free to go, but he's missed the train to London and therefore his deadline - so he believes. I told you he should have headed for S'hampton!
Fogg eventually navigates his way to London five minutes late and depressed, so he gives up every idea of anything, and doesn't even repair to the Reform Club. He goes home where he starts to put his (bankruptcy) affairs in order. In what is remarkable both for its inverse approach to marriage proposals as well as its bi-racial overtones, Aouda, who has been consistently and very formally referred to as Mrs. Aouda, proposes to Fogg, and he accepts. It is this very proposal which saves him, because it forces the redoubtable Passepartout to venture out to set a time for the marriage the next day, and thereby he learns that because of the speed and direction of their journey, their personal calendar is out by a day as compared with those who stayed in England. Fogg rushes to the Reform Club in perfect time to win his bet after all, but his real reward is, of course, finding love with Aouda
Jules Verne has written an interesting, eventful and really quite funny novel here, and it's a pleasure to recommend this as a worthy read (or listen!).
